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*LMP is the time since the last menstrual period began.
This color-coded map illustrates the current legal status of elective-specific abortion procedures in each of the individual states, U.S. territories, and federal district. A colored border indicates a more stringent restriction or ban that is blocked by legal injunction.
From the American Revolution to the mid-19th century abortion was not an issue of significant controversy; most held to the traditional Protestant Christian belief that personhood began at quickening, sometime between 18 and 21 weeks. It was legal prior to quickening in every state under the common law.[8][9][10][11] Connecticut was the first state to regulate abortion in 1821; it outlawed abortion after quickening, the moment in pregnancy when the pregnant woman starts to feel the fetus's movement in the uterus, and forbade the use of poisons to induce one post-quickening. Many states subsequently passed various laws on abortion until the Supreme Court of the United States decisions of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decriminalized abortion nationwide in 1973. The Roe decision imposed a federally mandated uniform framework for state legislation on the subject. It also established a minimal period during which abortion is legal, with more or fewer restrictions throughout the pregnancy. Evangelical Christians were initially generally either supportive or indifferent to Roe — citing what they saw as a lack of biblical condemnation on the matter, its perceived affirmation of religious liberty, and furthering of non-intrusive government — but by the 1980s began to join anti-abortion Catholics to overturn the decision.[12][13] That basic framework, modified in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), remained nominally in place, although the effective availability of abortion varied significantly from state to state, as many counties had no abortion providers.[14]Casey held that a law could not place legal restrictions imposing an "undue burden" for "the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus."[15] In December 2021, the FDA legalized telemedicine provision of medication abortion pills with delivery by mail, but many states have laws which restrict this option.
In 2022, Roe and Casey were overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, ending protection of abortion rights by the United States Constitution and allowing individual states to regulate any aspect of abortion not preempted by federal law.[16] Since 1976, the Republican Party has generally sought to restrict abortion access based on the stage of pregnancy or to criminalize abortion, whereas the Democratic Party has generally defended access to abortion and has made contraception easier to obtain.[17]
The abortion-rights movement advocates for patient choice and bodily autonomy, while the anti-abortion movement maintains that the fetus has a right to live. Historically framed as a debate between the pro-choice and pro-life labels, most Americans agree with some positions of each side.[18] Support for abortion gradually increased in the U.S. beginning in the early 1970s,[19] and stabilized during the 2010s.[20][21] The abortion rate has continuously declined from a peak in 1980 of 30 per 1,000 women of childbearing age (15–44) to 11.3 by 2018.[22] In 2018, 78% of abortions were performed at 9 weeks or less gestation, and 92% of abortions were performed at 13 weeks or less gestation.[22] By 2023, medication abortions accounted for 63% of all abortions.[23] Almost 25% of women will have had an abortion by age 45, with 20% of 30 year olds having had one.[24] In 2019, 60% of women who had abortions were already mothers, and 50% already had two or more children.[25][26] Increased access to birth control has been statistically linked to reductions in the abortion rate.[27][28][29]
The abortion debate most commonly relates to the induced abortion of a pregnancy, which is also how the term "abortion" is used in a legal sense.[nb 1] The terms "elective abortion" and "voluntary abortion" refer to the interruption of pregnancy, before viability, at the request of the woman but not for medical reasons.[35] In medical parlance, "abortion" can refer to a spontaneous miscarriage or to an induced miscarriage before the fetus is viable. After viability, doctors call an induced miscarriage a "termination of pregnancy".
History
Early history and rise of anti-abortion legislation
Abortion was a fairly common practice in the history of the United States, and was not always controversial.[10][36] At a time when society was more concerned with the more serious consequence of women becoming pregnant out of wedlock, family affairs were handled out of public view.[37][36] Abortion did not become a public controversy until the health risk of unsafe abortions by (female) unlicensed practitioners was brought to the public attention in the 19th century.[38] James Mohr wrote that even though pre-quickening abortion was legal in the first three decades of the 19th century, only 1 in 25 to 1 in 30 pregnancies ended in abortion. By the 1850s and 1860s, this number had increased to 1 in 5 or 1 in 6.[11][39] John Keown highlighted some challenges in pinning down the common law view, observing that "evidence of quickening would clearly facilitate prosecution".[40][41] In the mid-18th century, Benjamin Franklin included a recipe for an abortifacient in a math textbook.[42][43] In 1728, Franklin condemned publisher Samuel Keimer for publishing an article on abortion. According to biographer Walter Isaacson, Franklin did not have a strong view on the issue.[44] In The Speech of Polly Baker, Franklin places the blame for abortion and infanticide on the sexual double standard against women. He stated:[45]
Forgive me Gentlemen, if I talk a little extravagantly on these Matters; I am no Divine: But if you, great Men, must be making Laws, do not turn natural and useful Actions into Crimes, by your Prohibitions. Reflect a little on the horrid Consequences of this Law in particular: What Numbers of procur'd Abortions! and how many distress'd Mothers have been driven, by the Terror of Punishment and public Shame, to imbrue, contrary to Nature, their own trembling Hands in the Blood of their helpless Offspring! Nature would have induc'd them to nurse it up with a Parent's Fondness. 'Tis the Law therefore, 'tis the Law itself that is guilty of all these Barbarities and Murders. Repeal it then, Gentlemen; let it be expung'd for ever from your Books: And on the other hand, take into your wise Consideration, the great and growing Number of Batchelors in the Country, many of whom, from the mean Fear of the Expense of a Family, have never sincerely and honourably Courted a Woman in their Lives; and by their Manner of Living, leave unproduced (which I think is little better than Murder) Hundreds of their Posterity to the Thousandth Generation. Is not theirs a greater Offence against the Public Good, than mine? Compel them then, by a Law, either to Marry, or pay double the Fine of Fornication every Year.
In 1716, New York passed an ordinance prohibiting midwives from providing abortion.[46] Founding Father and Second President of the United States John Adams praised the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus for refusing his sister-in-law from having an abortion even though it prevented him from assuming power.[46] Early U.S. statutes did not prohibit early-term abortions: for the most part, abortion was not a crime until quickening, and most exceptions to this in practice were penalties imposed on practitioners if a woman under their care died as a consequence of the procedure.[47] Within the context of a sex scandal,[48] Connecticut became the first state to regulate abortion by statute in 1821. Many states subsequently passed various abortion laws. In 1829, New York made post-quickening abortions a felony and pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor.[49] This was followed by 10 of the 26 states creating similar restrictions within the next few decades,[50] in particular by the 1860s and 1870s.[38] The first laws related to abortion were made to protect women from real or perceived risks, and those more restrictive penalized only the provider.[51] Criminalization did not end the practice of abortion; unlicensed doctors and midwives continued to perform them. Most of the women receiving abortions from unlicensed practitioners were poor. Women's safety continued to be a concern, especially after the highly publicized death of Mary Rogers. Wealthier women could pay willing physicians to broadly interpret health exceptions in their favor. Euphemistic advertisements for abortifacients offered an assortment of herbal remedies.[47] Abortions increased during World War II as the need for female labor outweighed other concerns and bribes were often accepted in exchange for lax enforcement. Regulations were tightened after the war to encourage a return to traditional family life, until a reform movement started in the 1950s drawing attention to the public health issue of illegal abortions, and a consensus grew in the medical community that physicians should make decisions about when health exceptions apply.[52]
A number of other factors likely played a role in the rise of anti-abortion laws. As in Europe, abortion techniques advanced starting in the 17th century, and the conservatism of most in the medical profession with regards to sexual matters prevented the wide expansion of abortion techniques.[38][53]Physicians, who were the leading advocates of abortion criminalization laws, appear to have been motivated at least in part by advances in medical knowledge. Science had discovered that fertilization inaugurated a more or less continuous process of development, which produced a new human being. Quickening was found to be not more or less crucial in the process of gestation than any other step. Many physicians concluded that if society considered it unjustifiable to terminate pregnancy after the fetus had quickened, and if quickening was a relatively unimportant step in the gestation process, then it was just as wrong to terminate a pregnancy before quickening as after quickening.[54] Patricia Cline Cohen, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said that these laws had come about not because society saw abortion as a crime but from a small group of doctors who had taken it upon themselves to prove to the rest of the county that pre-quickening abortion should be seen as a crime. The doctors used flawed math to convince the American Medical Association to accept that pre-quickening abortion should also be outlawed, leading to the raft of state laws banning abortion in the latter half of the 19th century.[55] Doctors were also influenced by practical reasons to advocate anti-abortion laws. For one, abortion providers were usually female midwives without formal training or education. In an age where the leading doctors in the nation were attempting to standardize the medical profession, these unlicensed practitioners were considered a nuisance to public health.[38][56]
Despite campaigns to end the practice of abortion, abortifacient advertising was highly effective and abortion was commonly practiced, with the help of a midwife or other women,[8] in the mid-19th century,[57][58] although they were not always safe.[59] While the precise abortion rate was not known, James Mohr's 1978 book Abortion in America documented multiple recorded estimates by 19th-century physicians,[38] which suggested that between around 15% and 35% of all pregnancies ended in abortion during that period.[60] This era also saw a marked shift in the people who were obtaining abortions. Before the start of the 19th century, most abortions were sought by unmarried women, who had become pregnant out of wedlock and for which there was much less compassion compared to married women who got an abortion; many of them were wealthy and paid well.[38] Out of 54 abortion cases published in American medical journals between 1839 and 1880, over half were sought by married women, and well over 60% of the married women already had at least one child.[61]
The sense that married women were now frequently obtaining abortions worried many conservative physicians, who were almost exclusively men. In the Reconstruction era, much of the blame was placed on the burgeoning women's rights movement. Although the medical profession expressed hostility toward feminism, many feminists of the era were also opposed to abortion.[38][62][63] In The Revolution, a newspaper operated by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, an 1869 opinion piece was published arguing that instead of merely attempting to pass a law against abortion, the root cause must also be addressed.[63][64] The writer stated that simply passing an anti-abortion law would be "only mowing off the top of the noxious weed, while the root remains. ... No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; But oh! thrice guilty is he who drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime."[65] To many feminists of this era, abortion was regarded as an undesirable necessity forced upon women by thoughtless men.[66] The free love wing of the feminist movement refused to advocate for abortion and treated the practice as an example of the hideous extremes to which modern marriage was driving women.[67]Marital rape and the seduction of unmarried women were societal ills, which feminists believed caused the need to abort, as men did not respect women's right to abstinence.[67] Feminist opposition to abortion was much less prevalent by the 20th century, and it was feminists and physicians who came to question anti-abortion laws and raise public interest in the 1960s.[38]
Physicians, one of the most famous and consequential being Horatio Storer, remained the loudest voice in the anti-abortion debate, and they carried their agenda to state legislatures around the country, advocating not only anti-abortion laws but also laws against birth control on racist and pseudoscientific grounds;[68] religious groups were not particularly active within this movement,[69] which presaged the modern debate over women's body rights.[70] Although many of these laws indicated the woman as a co-criminal, she was rarely prosecuted.[38] A campaign was launched against the movement and the use and availability of contraceptives. Criminalization of abortion accelerated from the late 1860s through the efforts of concerned legislators, doctors, and the American Medical Association influenced by Storer,[71][72] and were facilitated by the press.[38] In 1873, Anthony Comstock created the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, an institution dedicated to supervising the morality of the public. Later that year, Comstock successfully influenced the United States Congress to pass the Comstock Law, which made it illegal to deliver through the U.S. mail any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" material. It also prohibited producing or publishing information pertaining to the procurement of abortion, birth control, and venereal disease, including to medical students.[73] The production, publication, importation, and distribution of such materials was suppressed under the Comstock Law as being obscene, and similar prohibitions were passed by 24 of the 37 states.[74]
By 1900, abortion was normally a felony in every state. Some states included provisions allowing for abortion in limited circumstances, generally to protect the woman's health or to terminate pregnancies arising from rape or incest.[75] Most Americans did not view abortion as a crime, and abortions continued to occur and became increasingly available.[76] The American Birth Control League was founded by Margaret Sanger in 1921; it would become Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942.[77][78] By the 1930s, licensed physicians performed an estimated 800,000 abortions a year.[79]
In 1988, 17 year old Becky Bell died from an infection after an unsafe abortion. She lived in Indiana where parental consent was required to have a safe and legal abortion. Laurence H. Tribe wrote in Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes that Bell's best friend said that Becky "couldn't bear telling" her parents and considered other alternatives like an out-of-state abortion.[80] It's not known if Becky attempted the abortion by herself but it was not done safely and she died from an infection. Her parents publicly campaigned against parental consent laws after her death.[81]
Rosie Jimenez died from sepsis in 1977 following an abortion procedure at the home of a midwife who was not licensed to perform abortions. She did not go to a licensed physician because the Hyde Amendment barring public Medicaid funding for abortions had gone into effect after surviving a statutory challenge in Beal v. Doe and an Equal Protection challenge in Maher v. Roe.[82][83][84]
Dr. Abu Hayat was convicted by a Manhattan Court in 1993 for performing an illegal third trimester abortion at his clinic in Alphabet City. The doctor began the dilation and evacuation procedure which was not legal in the third trimester. The baby was born alive before the procedure could be completed. She was missing an arm that had been severed during the D&E.[85]
He cited Roe v. Wade when he appealed his conviction for assaulting the baby based on an argument that the baby had not yet been born when he attempted the procedure.[85]
Another patient was forced to leave the clinic halfway through a procedure after Dr. Hayat demanded more money that her husband could not afford to pay. The patient nearly died and was treated at a local hospital for severe infection caused by pieces of dismembered fetus being left in her uterus.[86][87] 17 year old Sophie McCoy died in 1990 from an infected uterine perforation after receiving an abortion at Dr. Hayat's clinic.[88]
Inequality in access to safe and legal abortions persists to this day whereby many women cannot afford to obtain a legal abortion; in such cases, women may turn to illegal abortion.[89][90]
In the early 1960s, a controversy centered around children's television host Sherri Finkbine that helped bring abortion and abortion law more directly into the American public eye. Living in the area of Phoenix, Arizona, Finkbine had had four healthy children; during her pregnancy with her fifth child, she discovered the child might have severe deformities when born.[91] This was likely because Finkbine had been taking sleeping pills that she was unaware contained thalidomide, a drug that increases the risk of fetal deformities during pregnancy.[92] Though Finkbine wanted an abortion, the abortion laws of Arizona only allowed abortions if a pregnancy posed a threat to the woman's life. The situation gained public attention after Finkbine shared the story with a reporter from The Arizona Republic, who disclosed her identity in spite of her requests for anonymity. On August 18, 1962, Finkbine traveled to Sweden to obtain a legal abortion, where it was confirmed that the fetus had severe deformities.[93]
Pre-Roe precedents
In 1964, Gerri Santoro of Connecticut died trying to obtain an illegal abortion, and her photo became the symbol of an abortion-rights movement. Some women's rights activist groups developed their own skills to provide abortions to women who could not obtain them elsewhere. As an example, in Chicago, a group known as "Jane" operated a floating abortion clinic throughout much of the 1960s. Women seeking the procedure would call a designated number and be given instructions on how to find "Jane".[94]
In 1967, Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman. Similar laws were passed in California, Oregon, and North Carolina. In 1970, Hawaii became the first state to legalize abortions on the request of the woman,[98] and New York repealed its 1830 law and allowed abortions up to the 24th week of pregnancy. Similar laws were soon passed in Alaska and Washington. In 1970, Washington held a referendum on legalizing early pregnancy abortions, becoming the first state to legalize abortion through a vote of the people.[99] A law in Washington, D.C., which allowed abortion to protect the life or health of the woman, was challenged in the Supreme Court in 1971 in United States v. Vuitch. The court upheld the law, deeming that "health" meant "psychological and physical well-being", essentially allowing abortion in Washington, D.C. By the end of 1972, 13 states had a law similar to that of Colorado, while Mississippi allowed abortion in cases of rape or incest only and Alabama and Massachusetts allowed abortions only in cases where the woman's physical health was endangered. In order to obtain abortions during this period, women would often travel from a state where abortion was illegal to one where it was legal. The legal position prior to Roe v. Wade was that abortion was illegal in 30 states and legal under certain circumstances in 20 states.[100]
In the late 1960s, a number of organizations were formed to mobilize opinion both against and for the legalization of abortion. In 1966, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops assigned Monsignor James T. McHugh to document efforts to reform abortion laws, and anti-abortion groups began forming in various states in 1967. In 1968, McHugh led an advisory group which became the National Right to Life Committee.[101][102] The forerunner of the NARAL Pro-Choice America was formed in 1969 to oppose restrictions on abortion and expand access to abortion.[103] Following Roe v. Wade, in late 1973, NARAL became the National Abortion Rights Action League.
Prior to Roe v. Wade, 30 states prohibited abortion without exception, 16 states banned abortion except in certain special circumstances (e.g. rape, incest, and health threat to mother), 3 states allowed residents to obtain abortions, and New York allowed abortions generally.[104] Early that year, on January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade invalidated all of these laws, and set guidelines for the availability of abortion. The decision returned abortion to its liberalized pre-1820 status.[38]Roe established that the right of privacy of a woman to obtain an abortion "must be considered against important state interests in regulation".[105]Roe also established a trimester framework, defined as the end of the first pregnancy trimester (12 weeks), as the threshold for state interest, such that states were prohibited from banning abortion in the first trimester but allowed to impose increasing restrictions or outright bans later in pregnancy.[105]
Abortion laws in the U.S. before Roe:
Fully illegal (1 state).
Legal in cases of risk to woman's life (29 states).
Legal in cases of rape (1 state).
Legal in cases of risk to woman's health (2 states).
Legal in cases of risk to woman's health, rape or incest, or likely damaged fetus (12 states).
Legal on request (5 states).
In deciding Roe v. Wade, the Court ruled that a Texas statute forbidding abortion except when necessary to save the life of the mother was unconstitutional. The Court arrived at its decision by concluding that the issue of abortion and abortion rights falls under the right of privacy in the United States (e.g. federal constitutionally-protected right), in the sense of the right of a person not to be encroached by the state. In its opinion, it listed several landmark cases where the court had previously found a right to privacy implied by the Constitution. The Court did not recognize a right to abortion in all cases, saying: "State regulation protective of fetal life after viability thus has both logical and biological justifications. If the State is interested in protecting fetal life after viability, it may go so far as to proscribe abortion during that period, except when it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother."[107]
The Court held that a right to privacy existed and included the right to have an abortion. The court found that a mother had a right to abortion until viability, a point to be determined by the abortion doctor. After viability a woman can obtain an abortion for health reasons, which the Court defined broadly to include psychological well-being. A central issue in the Roe case and in the wider abortion debate in general is whether human life or personhood begins at conception, birth, or at some point in between. The Court declined to make an attempt at resolving this issue, writing: "We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer." Instead, it chose to point out that historically, under English and American common law and statutes, "the unborn have never been recognized ... as persons in the whole sense", and thus the fetuses are not legally entitled to the protection afforded by the right to life specifically enumerated in the Fourteenth Amendment. Rather than asserting that human life begins at any specific point, the Court declared that the state has a "compelling interest" in protecting "potential life" at the point of viability.[107]
Under Roe v. Wade, state governments may not prohibit late terminations of pregnancy when "necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother", even if it would cause the demise of a viable fetus.[108] This rule was clarified by the 1973 judicial decision Doe v. Bolton, which specifies "that the medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors—physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman's age—relevant to the well-being of the patient".[109][110][111] It is by this provision for the mother's mental health that women in the U.S. legally choose abortion after viability when screenings reveal abnormalities that do not cause a baby to die shortly after birth.[112][113][114][115]
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
In the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Court abandoned Roe's strict trimester framework but maintained its central holding that women have a right to choose to have an abortion before viability.[116]Roe had held that statutes regulating abortion must be subject to "strict scrutiny"—the traditional Supreme Court test for impositions upon fundamental Constitutional rights. Casey instead adopted the lower, undue burden standard for evaluating state abortion restrictions,[116] but re-emphasized the right to abortion as grounded in the general sense of liberty and privacy protected under the constitution: "Constitutional protection of the woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy derives from the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It declares that no state shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." The controlling word in the cases before us is 'liberty'."[117]
The Supreme Court continues to make decisions on this subject. On April 18, 2007, it issued a ruling in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart, involving a federal law entitled the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 which President George W. Bush had signed into law. The law banned intact dilation and extraction, which opponents of abortion rights referred to as "partial-birth abortion", and stipulated that anyone breaking the law would get a prison sentence up to 2.5 years. The United States Supreme Court upheld the 2003 ban by a narrow majority of 5–4, marking the first time the Court has allowed a ban on any type of abortion since 1973. The opinion, which came from justice Anthony Kennedy, was joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and the two recent appointees, Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.
In the case of Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, the Supreme Court in a 5–3 decision on June 27, 2016, swept away forms of state restrictions on the way abortion clinics can function. The Texas legislature enacted in 2013 restrictions on the delivery of abortions services that, it was argued by its opponents, created an undue burden for women seeking an abortion by requiring abortion doctors to have difficult-to-obtain "admitting privileges" at a local hospital and by requiring clinics to have costly hospital-grade facilities. The Court supported this argument and struck down these two provisions "facially" from the law at issue—that is, the very words of the provisions were invalid, no matter how they might be applied in any practical situation. According to the Supreme Court, the task of judging whether a law puts an unconstitutional burden on a woman's right to abortion belongs with the courts, and not the legislatures.[118]
The Supreme Court ruled similarly in June Medical Services, LLC v. Russo on June 29, 2020, in a 5–4 decision that a Louisiana state law, modeled after the Texas law at the center of Whole Woman's Health, was unconstitutional.[119] Like Texas' law, the Louisiana law required certain measures for abortion clinics that, if having gone into effect, would have closed five of the six clinics in the state. The case in Louisiana was put on hold pending the result of Whole Woman's Health, and was retried based on the Supreme Court's decision. While the District Court ruled the law unconstitutional, the Fifth Circuit found that unlike the Texas law, the burden of the Louisiana law passed the tests outlined in Whole Woman's Health, and thus the law was constitutional. The Supreme Court issued an order to suspend enforcement of the law pending further review, and agreed to hear the case in full in October 2019. It was the first abortion-related case to be heard by President Donald Trump's appointees to the Court, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.[120] The Supreme Court found the Louisiana law unconstitutional for the same reasons as the Texas one, reversing the Fifth Circuit. The judgment was supported by Chief Justice John Roberts who had dissented on Whole Woman's Health but joined in judgment as to upholding the court's respect for the past judgment in that case.[119]
The Supreme Court granted certiorari to Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in May 2021, a case that challenges the impact of Roe v. Wade in blocking enforcement of a 2018 Mississippi law (the Gestational Age Act) that had banned any abortions after the first 15 weeks.[121] Oral arguments to Dobbs were held in December 2021, and a decision was expected by the end of the 2021–22 Supreme Court term. On September 1, 2021, Texas passed the Texas Heartbeat Act, one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, banning most procedures after six weeks.[122] On May 2, 2022, a leaked draft majority opinion for Dobbs, written by Samuel Alito, set to overturn Roe was reported by Politico.[123]
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court overruled both Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in the Dobbs case on originalist grounds that a right to abortion cannot be found in the U.S. Constitution. John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the United States, concurred in the decision to uphold the law at question as constitutional, by a 6–3 vote, and did not support overruling both Roe and Casey.[124][125] This enabled trigger laws, which had been passed in 13 states,[126][127][128] to effectively ban abortions in those states.[129][130]
FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine brought into question the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s approval and rules around mifepristone, after lower courts had deemed the FDA's approval unlawful.[133] In Arizona, the state Supreme Court ruled in Planned Parenthood Arizona v. Mayes that instead of a 15-week ban on abortion passed by the state in 2022, that the state should follow a 1902 law, based on a pre-ratification 1864 law, that disallowed nearly any abortion except in the case of a medical emergency,[134] though the state government repealed the 1902 law in May 2024 to allow the 2022 law to take precedence.[135] Some Republicans, including allies of presidential candidate Donald Trump, have pushed Project 2025, a sweeping government reform plan that includes banning abortions at a federal level as well as access to medical abortions drugs.[136] Democrats used the pushback against these Republican and conservative anti-abortion goals as a point of campaigning for the election.[137]
Gerardo Flores was convicted of two counts of capital murder in 2005 under Texas' fetal homicide law. His girlfriend Erica Basoria testified that she had asked him to step on her stomach because her attempts to induce miscarriage on herself had been unsuccessful.[138] Flores said he initially refused but she would not relent until he agreed. Flores admitted to police that he "accidentally, probably" hit Basoria in the face during a fight on the night of the miscarriage. Basoria told police that he was not abusive.[139] Texas' fetal homicide law did not allow charges against the mother because she had a right to terminate pregnancy, so only Flores was charged.[140]
In 2019 a woman in Alabama was indicted after she was shot in the stomach for intentionally causing the death of "unborn baby Jones by initiating a fight knowing she was five months pregnant". The charges were later dropped.[141][142]
Medical abortion
Medical abortion via mifepristone and misoprostol was approved for abortion in the United States by the FDA in September 2000.[143]As of 2007[update], it was legal and available in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico.[144] It was a prescription drug, and required that it could only be distributed to the public through specially qualified licensed physicians.[145]
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic on December 16, 2021, in light of the difficulties in accessing in-person healthcare services, the FDA approved the distribution of mifepristone via mail.[146] In states where abortion is banned or restricted, women are able to obtain pills through ordering from overseas online pharmacies, purchasing from pharmacies in Mexico, from services such as Aid Access,[147] or through a network of U.S.-Mexico border organizations that includes Red Necesito Abortar, Las Libres[es], and Marea Verde.[148][149][150][151][152]
In January 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that USPS mailing of pills for medication abortion, even into states where abortion services are restricted, does not violate federal law.[153] In 2023, online access to abortion medication by mail delivered by the US Postal Service is currently available to citizens of all states.[154]
In light of the Dobbs decision, the Alliance Defending Freedom launched a lawsuit in November 2022 in the Northern District of Texas under Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk to seek to overturn the FDA's original approval of mifepristone. The Alliance argued that the FDA had ignored some studies that showed the medication to have harmful side effects, while the current federal administration under Joe Biden, the manufacturers of the drugs, and several doctors vouched for the safety of the drugs and argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing. Judge Kacsmaryk ruled for the Alliance on April 7, 2023, reversing the FDA's approval and banning mifepristone across the United States after seven days.[155] A district judge in a separate lawsuit, Thomas O. Rice of the Eastern District of Washington, ruled that the FDA should not reverse access to mifepristone in 16 states.[156] Kacsmaryk's ruling was partially reversed by a panel on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, leaving mifepristone on the market but reverting efforts made by the FDA to liberalize its use over seven years.[157] The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, and on June 13, 2024, the court ruled that the Alliance Defending Freedom lacked standing to bring the suit.[158]
Since 1995, led by congressional Republicans, the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate have moved several times to pass measures banning the procedure of intact dilation and extraction, commonly known as partial birth abortion. Such measures passed twice by wide margins, but PresidentBill Clintonvetoed those bills in April 1996 and October 1997 on the grounds that they did not include health exceptions. Congressional supporters of the bill argue that a health exception would render the bill unenforceable, since the Doe v. Bolton decision defined "health" in vague terms, justifying any motive for obtaining an abortion. Congress was unsuccessful with subsequent attempts to override the vetoes.
The Born-Alive Infants Protection Act (BAIPA) was enacted August 5, 2002, by an Act of Congress and signed into law by George W. Bush. It asserts the human rights of infants born after a failed attempt to induce abortion. A "born-alive infant" is specified as a "person, human being, child, individual". "Born alive" is defined as the complete expulsion of an infant at any stage of development that has a heartbeat, pulsation of the umbilical cord, breath, or voluntary muscle movement, no matter if the umbilical cord has been cut or if the expulsion of the infant was natural, induced labor, cesarean section, or induced abortion. The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act is a proposed piece of legislation that would result in criminal penalties for any practitioner who denies a born-alive infant care.
On October 2, 2003, with a vote of 281–142, the House approved the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act to ban intact dilation and extraction, with an exemption in cases of fatal threats to the woman. Through this legislation, a doctor could face up to two years in prison and civil lawsuits for performing such a procedure. A woman undergoing the procedure could not be prosecuted under the measure. On October 21, 2003, the United States Senate passed the bill by a vote of 64–34, with a number of Democrats joining in support. The bill was signed by President George W. Bush on November 5, 2003, but a federal judge blocked its enforcement in several states just a few hours after it became public law. The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on the procedure in the case Gonzales v. Carhart on April 18, 2007, signaling a substantial change in the Court's approach to abortion law.[161] The 5–4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act does not conflict with previous decisions regarding abortion.
The judicial interpretation of the U.S. Constitution regarding abortion, following the Supreme Court of the United States's 1973 landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, and subsequent companion decisions, is that abortion is legal but may be restricted by the states to varying degrees. States have passed laws to restrict late-term abortions, require parental notification for minors, and mandate the disclosure of abortion risk information to patients prior to the procedure.[162]
The official report of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, issued in 1983 after extensive hearings on the Human Life Amendment (proposed by Senators Orrin Hatch and Thomas Eagleton), stated: "Thus, the [Judiciary] Committee observes that no significant legal barriers of any kind whatsoever exist today in the United States for a mother to obtain an abortion for any reason during any stage of her pregnancy."[163]
One aspect of the legal abortion regime now in place has been determining when the fetus is "viable" outside the womb as a measure of when the "life" of the fetus is its own (and therefore subject to being protected by the state). In the majority opinion delivered by the court in Roe v. Wade, viability was defined as "potentially able to live outside the mother's womb, albeit with artificial aid. Viability is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks". When the court ruled in 1973, the then-current medical technology suggested that viability could occur as early as 24 weeks. Advances over the past three decades allow survival of some babies born at 22 weeks.[164]
As of 2006[update], the youngest child to survive a premature birth in the United States was a girl born at Kapiolani Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, at 21 weeks and 3 days gestation.[165] Because of the split between federal and state law, legal access to abortion continues to vary by state. Geographic availability varies dramatically, with 87 percent of U.S. counties having no abortion provider.[166] Moreover, due to the Hyde Amendment, many Medicaid state programs do not cover abortions; as of 2022, 17 states including California, Illinois, and New York offer or require such coverage.[167]
The legality of abortion is frequently a major issue in nomination battles for the U.S. Supreme Court. Nominees typically remain silent on the issue during their hearings, as the issue may come before them as judges.[168]
The Unborn Victims of Violence Act, commonly known as Laci and Conner's Law, was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush on April 1, 2004, allowing two charges to be filed against someone who kills a pregnant mother (one for the mother and one for the fetus). It specifically bans charges against the mother and/or doctor relating to abortion procedures. Nevertheless, it has generated much controversy among pro-abortion rights advocates who view it as a potential step in the direction of banning abortion.
After the Dobbs decision, Merrick Garland, the U.S. Attorney General, asserted that under federal law, states do not have the right to restrict access to FDA-approved abortion pills, but Louisiana passed a law to ban mailing them.[171] Legal experts cited as a potentially persuasive precedent the 2014 district decision in Zogenix v. Patrick, in which the court ruled that under the doctrine of federal preemption, Massachusetts could not ban the opioid Zohydro because it had been approved by the FDA.[172][173]
On September 13, 2022, Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who had previously stated that abortion should be left up to each state,[174] introduced legislation that would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the patient, named the Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act.[175][176][177] This law would require states to ban abortion after 15 weeks, but it would not require states with stricter bans to allow it up to that point.[178] Despite the view that it "gets the United States in line with other developed nations", it leaves out the fact that none of those nations ban abortion. Graham had previously introduced the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which set the period at 20 weeks.[179]
Penalties by state
Currently, 13 states have criminal penalties for performing abortions, regardless of gestational age.[180] The penalties in states that have made abortion illegal vary, as outlined below.
This chart lists only the penalties authorized specifically by the state laws which explicitly restrict (or ban) abortions. The chart does not address the risk of being prosecuted for violating any other law because of the abortion. The jurisprudence surrounding this question – whether laws such as "fetal-personhood laws",[181] or laws originally intended to protect pregnant women and their pregnancies from external aggressors, can now also be used to prosecute women who obtain abortions, or who terminate their own pregnancies, deliberately or unintentionally[182] – is unsettled, variable, and, in some states, unclear.[183] States with criminal penalties that are blocked by a court, have yet to take effect, or are unenforced are denoted by a grey background.
Performing an abortion is a Class A felony punishable by imprisonment for at least 10 years up to 99 years or life. Attempting to perform an abortion is a Class C felony punishable by imprisonment for at least 1 year and 1 day up to 10 years.[184]
None authorized by the state's ban on abortion.[185]
Performing or attempting to perform an abortion is an unclassified felony punishable by imprisonment not to exceed 10 years and/or a maximum fine of $100,000.[187]
None authorized by the state's ban on abortion.[188]
Performing an abortion is a felony punishable by imprisonment for not less than 2 and not more than 5 years and/or a maximum fine of $5,000.[189]
Purposely terminating a pregnancy other than by live birth is a felony punishable by imprisonment for not less than 1 and not more than 5 years and/or a maximum fine of $5,000.[190]
Intentional termination of life of an unborn human being is a class D felony punishable by imprisonment for not less than 1 and not more than 5 years.[193]
None authorized by the state's ban on abortion.[194]
Committing an abortion is punishable by imprisonment for not less than one year and not more than ten years and/or a fine of not less than $10,000 or more than $100,000.[195]
None authorized by the state's ban on abortion.[196]
Performing or attempting to perform an abortion is a felony punishable by imprisonment for a term not to exceed ten years and/or a maximum fine of $100,000.[203]
None authorized by the state's ban on abortion.[204]
Performing or attempting to perform an abortion is a class C felony punishable by imprisonment for not less than 3 years and not more than 15 years.[206]
None authorized by the state's ban on abortion.[207]
Performing or attempting to perform an abortion is a first-degree felony if an unborn child ("an individual living member of the homo sapiens species from fertilization until birth, including the entire embryonic and fetal stages of development") dies as a result of the offense punishable by imprisonment of not less than 5 years and not more than 99 years and a maximum fine of $10,000; or a second-degree felony otherwise punishable by imprisonment of not less than 2 years and not more than 20 years and a maximum fine of $10,000.[208]
None authorized by the state's ban on abortion.[209]
Killing an unborn child (not defined in the statute) is a second-degree felony punishable by imprisonment for not less than 1 and not more than 15 years.[210]
States in which the right to an abortion is protected, either through state law, a state supreme court ruling, or both.
Abortion access protected by state law
Abortion access protected by state Constitution
Abortion access protected via both state law and state Constitution
No state level protections
Abortion access restricted by state Constitution
Mandatory waiting period laws in the US
No mandatory waiting period.
Waiting period law currently enjoined.
Waiting period of 18 hours.
Waiting period of 24 hours.
Waiting period of 48 hours.
Waiting period of 72 hours.
No elective abortion.
Prior to 2021, abortion was legal in all U.S. states,[217] and every state had at least one abortion clinic.[218][219] Abortion is a controversial political issue, and regular attempts to restrict it occur in most states. Two such cases, originating in Texas and Louisiana, led to the Supreme Court cases of Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt (2016) and June Medical Services, LLC v. Russo (2020) in which several Texas and Louisiana restrictions were struck down.[220][221]
The issue of minors and abortion is regulated at the state level, and 37 states require some parental involvement, either in the form of parental consent or in the form of parental notification. In certain situations, the parental restrictions can be overridden by a court.[222] Mandatory waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds and scripted counseling are common abortion regulations. Abortion laws are generally stricter in conservative Southern states than they are in other parts of the country.
In 2019, New York passed the Reproductive Health Act (RHA), which repealed a pre-Roe provision that banned third-trimester abortions except in cases where the continuation of the pregnancy endangered a pregnant woman's life.[223][224]
Alabama House Republicans passed a law on April 30, 2019, that will criminalize most abortion if it goes into effect.[228] Dubbed the "Human Life Protection Act", it offers only two exceptions: serious health risk to the mother or a lethal fetal anomaly. Amendments that would have added cases of rape or incest to the list of exceptions were rejected[229] It will also make the procedure a Class A felony.[230] Twenty-five male Alabama senators voted to pass the law on May 13.[231] The next day, Alabama governor Kay Ivey signed the bill into law, primarily as a symbolic gesture in hopes of challenging Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court.[232][233]
Since Alabama introduced the first modern anti-abortion legislation in April 2019, five other states have also adopted abortion laws including Mississippi, Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia and most recently Louisiana on May 30, 2019.[234]
In May 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Indiana state law that requires fetuses which were aborted be buried or cremated.[235] In a December 2019 case, the court declined to review a lower court decision which upheld a Kentucky law requiring doctors to perform ultrasounds and show fetal images to patients before abortions.[236]
On June 29, 2020, previous Supreme Court rulings banning abortion restrictions appeared to be upheld when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Louisiana anti-abortion law.[237] Following the ruling, the legality of laws restricting abortion in states such as Ohio was then called into question.[238] It was also noted that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who agreed that the Louisiana anti-abortion law was unconstitutional, had previously voted to uphold a similar law in Texas which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2016.[239]
In May 2021, Texas lawmakers passed the Texas Heartbeat Act, banning abortions as soon as cardiac activity can be detected, typically as early as six weeks into pregnancy, and often before women know they are pregnant due to the length of the menstrual cycle (which usually lasts a median of four weeks and in some cases can be irregular).[240] In order to avoid traditional constitutional challenges based on Roe v. Wade, the law provides that any person, with or without any vested interest, may sue anyone that performs or induces an abortion in violation of the statute, as well as anyone who "aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion, including paying for or reimbursing the costs of an abortion through insurance or otherwise."[241] The law was challenged in courts, though had yet to have a full formal hearing as its September 1, 2021, enactment date came due. Plaintiffs sought an order from the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the law from coming into effect, but the Court issued a denial of the order late on September 1, 2021, allowing the law to remain in effect. While unsigned, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Stephen Breyer wrote dissenting opinions joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor that they would have granted an injunction on the law until a proper judicial review.[242][243]
On September 9, 2021, Merrick Garland, the Attorney General and head of the United States Department of Justice, sued Texas over the Texas Heartbeat Act on the basis that "the law is invalid under the Supremacy Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, is preempted by federal law, and violates the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity".[244] Garland further noted that the United States government has "an obligation to ensure that no state can deprive individuals of their constitutional rights."[245] The Complaint avers that Texas enacted the law "in open defiance of the Constitution".[246] The relief requested from the U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas includes a declaration that the Texas Act is unconstitutional, and an injunction against state actors as well as any and all private individuals who may bring a SB 8 action.[246][245] The idea of asking a federal court to impose an injunction upon the entire civilian population of a state is unprecedented and has drawn eyebrows.[247][248]
Colorado passed into law its Reproductive Health Equity Act in April 2022, which assures abortion rights for all citizens of the state. While the bill as passed maintained the status quo for abortion rights, it assures that "every individual has a fundamental right to make decisions about the individual's reproductive health care, including the fundamental right to use or refuse contraception; a pregnant individual has a fundamental right to continue a pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion and to make decisions about how to exercise that right; and a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent or derivative rights under the laws of the state" regardless of changes that may happen at the federal level.[249]
On May 25, 2022, Oklahoma imposed a ban on elective abortions after Oklahoma GovernorKevin Stitt signed House Bill 4327. The bill bans elective abortion beginning at conception.[250] The law also permits private citizens to file lawsuits against abortion providers who knowingly provide, perform, or induce elective abortions on a pregnant woman. Abortion in cases of rape, incest, or high-risk pregnancies continue to be permitted.[251] A lawsuit was immediately filed by the ACLU in opposition to the bill.[252][253] At the time of enactment, Oklahoma was the only U.S. state to have passed a bill imposing such restrictions; the law made Oklahoma the first U.S. state to ban elective abortion procedures since prior to the ruling and implementation of Roe in 1973.[254][255][250]
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe on June 24, 2022, Texas and Missouri immediately banned abortions with the exception only if the pregnancy was deemed to be particularly life-threatening.[256][257]
On January 28, 2023, the Minnesota state Senate passed a bill guaranteeing women's rights to abortion and other reproductive medicine which was signed into law on January 31. The bill prohibits state and local governments from attempting to restrict access to sterilization or prenatal care, while also requiring contraceptive cost compensation.[258][259]
In June 2024 abortion in Iowa was made illegal after 6 weeks of gestation, with exceptions for rape, incest, foetal abnormalities, and the mother's life.
In 2023, five women launched a class action lawsuit against the State of Texas after they were reportedly denied abortions at a clinic in the State despite grave risks to their life. Four of the women traveled out of state in order to obtain an abortion, while the fifth only received the abortion in Texas when she was hospitalized after the fetus suffered a premature rupture of membranes. The case argues that the Texas law, which allows abortion if there is a health risk to the mother, is too vague and doctors will not perform an abortion for fear of legal repercussions.[260]
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-abortion government officials in several American states enacted or attempted to enact restrictions on abortion, characterizing it as a non-essential procedure that can be suspended during the medical emergency.[261] The orders have led to several legal challenges and criticism by human rights groups and several national medical organizations, including the American Medical Association.[262] Legal challenges on behalf of abortion providers, many of which were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, successfully stopped most of the orders on a temporary basis.[261]
One challenge was made against the FDA's rule on the distribution of mifepristone (RU-486), one of the two-part drug regimen to induce abortions. Since 2000, it is only available through health providers under the FDA's ruling. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, access to mifepristone was a concern, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists along with other groups sued to have the rule relaxed to allow women to be able to access mifepristone at home through mail-order or retail pharmacies. While the Fourth Circuit issued a preliminary injunction against the FDA's ruling that would have allowed wider distribution, the Supreme Court ordered in a 6–3 decision in January 2021 to put a stay on the injunction, maintaining the FDA's rule.[263]
Sanctuary cities
Since 2019, the anti-abortion movement in the United States has sought declarations of "sanctuary cit[ies] for the unborn".[264] In June 2019, the city council of Waskom, Texas, voted to outlaw abortion in the city, declaring Waskom a "sanctuary city for the unborn" (the first such city to designate itself as such), as state governments elsewhere in the United States were also drafting abortion bans.[265][266]As of July2019[update], there is no abortion clinic in the city.[267][268] The Waskom ordinance has led other small cities in Texas, and as of April 2021 in Nebraska, to vote in favor of becoming "sanctuary cities for the unborn".[269][270][271]
On April 6, 2021, Hayes Center, Nebraska, became the first city in Nebraska to outlaw abortion by local ordinance, declaring itself a "sanctuary city for the unborn."[272] The city of Blue Hill, Nebraska, followed suit and enacted a similar ordinance outlawing abortion on April 13, 2021.[273][274] In May 2021, Lubbock, Texas, with a population of less than 270,000, voted to ban abortion with the "sanctuary city for the unborn ordinance", becoming the largest city in the U.S. to ban abortion.[275][276][277]
Abortion rights movements have also pushed for similar counterpart legislation in other cities.[278]
Abortion financing
State Medicaid coverage of medically necessary abortion services (text-based list):
Medicaid covers medically necessary abortion for low-income women through legislation.
Medicaid covers medically necessary abortions for low-income women under court order.
Medicaid denies abortion coverage for low-income women except for cases of rape, incest, life or health endangerment, or severe fetal abnormality.
Medicaid denies abortion coverage for low-income women except for cases of rape, incest, life endangerment, or severe fetal abnormality.
Medicaid denies abortion coverage for low-income women except for cases of rape, incest, or life or health endangerment.
Medicaid denies abortion coverage for low-income women except for cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment.
Medicaid denies abortion coverage for low-income women except for cases of life endangerment.
The abortion debate has also been extended to the question of who pays the medical costs of the procedure, with some states using the mechanism as a way of reducing the number of abortions.[279]
The cost of an abortion varies depending on factors such as location, facility, timing, type of procedure, and whether or not there is insurance or some other type of financial assistance. In 2022, a medication abortion cost was about $580 at Planned Parenthood, though it could be more, up to around $800, in other facilities. During the first trimester an in-clinic abortion cost up to around $800, though often less; the average cost at Planned Parenthood was about $600. A second trimester procedure varied depending on the stage of pregnancy. The average ranged from about $715 earlier in the second trimester to $1,500–2,000 later in the second trimester.[280] A variety of resources from support organizations are available to contribute to the costs of the procedure, as well as travel expenses.[281]
Abortion fund organizations
A variety of organizations offer financial support for people seeking abortions, including travel and other expenses.[281] Access Reproductive Care–Southeast (ARC Southeast), the Brigid Alliance, the Midwest Access Coalition (MAC), and the National Network of Abortion Funds are examples of such groups.[281]
Medicaid
The Hyde Amendment is a federal legislative provision barring the use of federal Medicaid funds to pay for abortions except for rape and incest.[282] The provision, in various forms, was in response to Roe v. Wade, and has been routinely attached to annual appropriations bills since 1976, and represented the first major legislative success by the pro-life movement. The law requires that states cover abortions under Medicaid in the event of rape, incest, and life endangerment.[283]
Private insurance
Six states require coverage in all private plans: California, Illinois, Maine, New York, Oregon, and Washington. (2021)[284]
Note: The following figures are from 2008 and may have changed since that time.
5 states (ID, KY, MO, ND, OK) restrict insurance coverage of abortion services in private plans: OK limits coverage to life endangerment, rape or incest circumstances; and the other four states limit coverage to cases of life endangerment.
11 states (CO, KY, MA, MS, NE, ND, OH, PA, RI, SC, VA) restrict abortion coverage in insurance plans for public employees, with CO and KY restricting insurance coverage of abortion under any circumstances.
U.S. laws also ban federal funding of abortions for federal employees and their dependents, Native Americans covered by the Indian Health Service, military personnel and their dependents, and women with disabilities covered by Medicare.[285]
Under this policy, U.S. federal funding to NGOs that provide abortion is not permitted. The policy was first announced by President Ronald Reagan in 1984. It has been rescinded by Democratic presidents and reinstated by Republican presidents. The policy was rescinded in 2021 by President Joe Biden.[286]
Qualifying requirements for abortion providers
Qualifying requirements for performing abortions vary from state to state.[287] Vermont has allowed physician assistants to do some first-trimester abortions since the mid-1970s.[288] More recently, several states have changed their requirements for abortion providers, anticipating that the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade; now that the court has done so, more states are expanding eligibility to provide abortions. As of July 2022[update], California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington allow mid-level practitioners such as nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, and physicians assistants, to do some first-trimester abortions.[289] In other states, non-physicians are not permitted to perform abortions.
The annual number of legal induced abortions in the U.S. doubled between 1973 and 1979, and peaked in 1990. There was a slow but steady decline throughout the 1990s. Overall, the number of annual abortions decreased by 6% between 2000 and 2009, with temporary spikes in 2002 and 2006.[294]
By 2011, abortion rate in the nation dropped to its lowest point since the Supreme Court legalized the procedure. According to a study performed by Guttmacher Institute, long-acting contraceptive methods had a significant impact in reducing unwanted pregnancies. There were fewer than 17 abortions for every 1,000 women of child-bearing age. That was a 13%-decrease from 2008's numbers and slightly higher than the rate in 1973, when the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion.[295] The study indicated a long-term decline in the abortion rate.[296][297][298]
caption=Graph of U.S. abortion rates, 1973–2017, showing data collected by the Guttmacher Institute.
During the first six months of 2023 (following Dobbs in 2022), the numbers of abortions in certain U.S. states changed dramatically compared to the same time period in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Abortions tripled in New Mexico and Wyoming and more than doubled in South Carolina and Kansas. For 13 states that had banned abortion, the Guttmacher Institute had no 2023 data to make the comparison.[300]
Medical abortions
A Guttmacher Institute survey of abortion providers estimated that early medical abortions accounted for 17% of all non-hospital abortions and slightly over one-quarter of abortions before 9 weeks gestation in the United States in 2008.[301] Medical abortions voluntarily reported to the CDC by 34 reporting areas (excluding Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) and published in its annual abortion surveillance reports have increased every year since the September 28, 2000 FDA approval of mifepristone (RU-486): 1.0% in 2000, 2.9% in 2001, 5.2% in 2002, 7.9% in 2003, 9.3% in 2004, 9.9% in 2005, 10.6% in 2006, 13.1% in 2007, 15.8% in 2008, 17.1% in 2009 (25.2% of those at less than 9 weeks gestation).[302] Medical abortions accounted for 32% of first-trimester abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics in 2008.[303] By 2020, medication abortions accounted for more than 50% of all abortions.[304] In 2023, medication abortions obtained within the formal health care system had risen to 63% of all abortions, with the total percentage (which would include self-managed abortions by individuals in states with total bans) likely higher.[23]
Abortion and religion
A majority of abortions are obtained by religiously identified women. According to the Guttmacher Institute, "more than 7 in 10 U.S. women obtaining an abortion report a religious affiliation (37% Protestant, 28% Catholic, and 7% other), and 25% attend religious services at least once a month. The abortion rate for Protestant women is 15 per 1,000 women, while Catholic women have a slightly higher rate, 20 per 1,000."[305]
Abortion and ethnicity
Abortion rates tend to be higher among minority women in the United States. In 2000–2001, the rates among black and Hispanic women were 49 per 1,000 and 33 per 1,000, respectively, vs. 13 per 1,000 among non-Hispanic white women. This figure includes all women of reproductive age, including women that are not pregnant. In other words, these abortion rates reflect the rate at which U.S. women of reproductive age have an abortion each year.[306]
In 2004, the rates of abortion by ethnicity in the U.S. were 50 abortions per 1,000 black women, 28 abortions per 1,000 Hispanic women, and 11 abortions per 1,000 white women.[307][308]
In 2024, the abortion rate for black women was nearly three times higher than for white women, while for Hispanic women, it was nearly two times higher than the rate for white women.[309]
Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. In 1972, 41% of abortions were performed on women outside their state of residence, while in 1973 it declined to 21%, and then to 11% in 1974.[310]
In the decade from 2011 to 2020, during which many states increased abortion restrictions, the percentage of women nationwide who traveled out of state for an abortion increased steadily, from 6% in 2011 to 9% in 2020.[311] Out of state travel for an abortion was much more prevalent in the 29 states hostile to abortion rights, with percentages in those states rising from 9% in 2011 to 15% by 2020, while in states supportive of abortion rights, out of state travel for abortions rose from 2% to 3% between 2011 and 2020.[311]
Gutttmacher has released data about abortions by state of occurrence and state of residence.[311] In some states, these numbers can be tremendously different, for example in Missouri, a state very hostile to abortion rights, the abortion rate by state of occurrence dropped from 4 in 1000 women aged 15–44 for 2017 to 0.1 for 2020, because 57% of abortion recipients went out of state in 2017, while 99% did so in 2020.[311] In contrast, from 2017 to 2020, the abortion rate by state of residence for Missourians went up by 18% from 8.4 to 9.9.[311]
Some out of state travel pertains to locations of population centers in states; if large cities are close to state borders it may be common to cross borders for an abortion.[311] For example, Delaware, which is generally supportive of abortion rights, saw 44% of residents obtain their abortions in neighboring states.[311]
Motherhood
In 2019, 60% of women who had abortions were already mothers, and 50% already had two or more children.[25][26]
Reasons for abortions
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2022)
A 1998 study revealed that in 1987 to 1988, women reported the following as their primary reasons for choosing an abortion:[312][313]
Percentage
of women
Primary reason for choosing an abortion
25.5%
Want to postpone childbearing
21.3%
Cannot afford a baby
14.1%
Has relationship problem or partner does not want pregnancy
12.2%
Too young; parent(s) or other(s) object to pregnancy
10.8%
Having a child will disrupt education or employment
7.9%
Want no (more) children
3.3%
Risk to fetal health
2.8%
Risk to maternal health
2.1%
Other
The source of this information takes findings into account from 27 nations including the United States, and therefore, these findings may not be typical for any one nation.
According to a 1987 study that included specific data about late abortions (i. e., abortions "at 16 or more weeks' gestation"),[314] women reported that various reasons contributed to their having a late abortion:
Percentage
of women
Reasons contributing to a late abortion
71%
Woman did not recognize she was pregnant or misjudged gestation
48%
Woman had found it hard to make arrangements for an earlier abortion
33%
Woman was afraid to tell her partner or parents
24%
Woman took time to decide to have an abortion
8%
Woman waited for her relationship to change
8%
Someone had earlier pressured woman not to have abortion
6%
Something changed some time after woman became pregnant
6%
Woman did not know timing is important
5%
Woman did not know she could get an abortion
2%
A fetal problem was diagnosed late in pregnancy
11%
Other
In 2000, cases of rape or incest accounted for 1% of abortions.[315]
A 2004 study by the Guttmacher Institute reported that women listed the following amongst their reasons for choosing to have an abortion:[313]
Percentage
of women
Reason for choosing to have an abortion
74%
Having a baby would dramatically change my life
73%
Cannot afford a baby now
48%
Do not want to be a single mother or having relationship problems
38%
Have completed my childbearing
32%
Not ready for another child
25%
Do not want people to know I had sex or got pregnant
22%
Do not feel mature enough to raise a(nother) child
14%
Husband or partner wants me to have an abortion
13%
Possible problems affecting the health of the fetus
12%
Concerns about my health
6%
Parents want me to have an abortion
1%
Was a victim of rape
less than .5%
Became pregnant as a result of incest
A 2008 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) shows that rates of unintended pregnancy are highest among Blacks, Hispanics, and women with lower socio-economic status.[316]
70% of all pregnancies among Black women were unintended
57% of all pregnancies among Hispanic women were unintended
42% of all pregnancies among White women were unintended
When women have abortions (by gestational age)
Abortion in the U.S. by gestational age, 2016
According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2011, most (64.5%) abortions were performed by ≤8 weeks' gestation, and nearly all (91.4%) were performed by ≤13 weeks' gestation. Few abortions (7.3%) were performed between 14 and 20 weeks' gestation or at ≥21 weeks' gestation (1.4%). From 2002 to 2011, the percentage of all abortions performed at ≤8 weeks' gestation increased 6%.[317]
The risk of death from carrying a child to term in the U.S. is approximately 14 times greater than the risk of death from a legal abortion.[318] In 2012, the mortality rate from legal abortion was 0.6 abortion-related deaths per 100,000 abortions.[318] The risk of abortion-related mortality increases with gestational age, but remains lower than that of childbirth through at least 21 weeks' gestation.[319][320][321]
For the period 2013 – 2019, the rate of mortality from legal abortion procedures in the US was 0.43 abortion-related deaths per 100,000 reported legal abortions, lower than the rates for previous 5-year periods.[322] In 2019, there were four identified deaths related to abortion in the US, out of 625,000 abortions.[322]
Increased access to birth control has been statistically linked to reductions in the abortion rate.[27][28][29] As an element of family planning, birth control was federally subsidized for low income families in 1965 under President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty program. In 1970, Congress passed Title X to provide family planning services for those in need, and President Richard Nixon signed it into law. Funding for Title X rose from $6million in 1971 to $61million the next year, and slowly increased each year to $317million in 2010, after which it was reduced by a few percent.[323]
In 2011, the Guttmacher Institute reported that the number of abortions in the U.S. would be nearly two-thirds higher without access to birth control.[324] In 2015, the Federation of American Scientists reported that federally mandated access to birth control had helped reduce teenage pregnancies in the U.S. by 44 percent, and had prevented more than 188,000 unintended pregnancies.[325]
Public opinion
This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(May 2024)
Trend percent of Americans self-identifying as either "pro-life" or "pro-choice"
Americans have been equally divided on the issue; a May 2018 Gallup poll indicated that 48% of Americans described themselves as "pro-choice" and 48% described themselves as "pro-life".[21] A July 2018 poll indicated that 64% of Americans did not want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, while 28% did.[326] The same poll found that support for abortion being generally legal was 60% during the first trimester of pregnancy, dropping to 28% in the second trimester, and 13% in the third trimester.[327]
Support for the legalization of abortion has been consistently higher among more educated adults than less educated,[328] and in 2019, 70% of college graduates support abortion being legal in all or most cases, compared to 60% of those with some college, and 54% of those with a high school degree or less.[329]
In January 2013, a majority of Americans believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a poll by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal.[330] Approximately 70% of respondents in the same poll opposed Roe v. Wade being overturned.[330] A poll by the Pew Research Center yielded similar results.[331] Moreover, 48% of Republicans opposed overturning Roe, compared to 46% who supported overturning it.[331]
Gallup declared in May 2010 that more Americans identifying as "pro-life" is "the new normal", while also noting that there had been no increase in opposition to abortion. It suggested that political polarization may have prompted more Republicans to call themselves "pro-life".[20] The terms "pro-choice" and "pro-life" do not always reflect a political view or fall along a binary; in one Public Religion Research Institute poll, seven in ten Americans described themselves as "pro-choice" while almost two-thirds described themselves as "pro-life". The same poll found that 56% of Americans were in favor of legal access to abortion in all or some cases.[332]
A 2022 study reviewing the literature and public opinion datasets found that 43.8% of survey respondents in the U.S. consistently support both elective and traumatic abortion, whereas only 14.8% consistently oppose abortion irrespective of the reason, and others differ in their degree of support for abortion depending on the circumstances of the abortion.[19] 90% approve of abortion when the health of the woman is endangered, 77.4% when there is a strong chance of defects in the baby that could result from the pregnancy, and 79.5% when the pregnancy is the result of rape.[19]
A 2022 poll by the Pew Research Center, found that 47% polled said that women who had an illegal abortion should face a penalty. 14% said they should face jail time, 16% said a fine or community services and 17% were not sure the penalty.[333][334]
A January 2023 Gallup poll found that nearly 7 in 10 Americans disapprove of the country's abortion policies, the highest rate in 23 years.[335]
Date of poll
"Pro-life"
"Pro-choice"
Mixed / neither
Don't know what terms mean
No opinion
2016, May 4–8
46%
47%
3%
3%
2%
2015, May 6–10
44%
50%
3%
2%
1%
2014, May 8–11
46%
47%
3%
3%
–
2013, May 2–7
48%
45%
3%
3%
2%
2012, May 3–6
50%
41%
4%
3%
3%
2011, May 5–8
45%
49%
3%
2%
2%
2010, March 26–28
46%
45%
4%
2%
3%
2009, November 20–22
45%
48%
2%
2%
3%
2009, May 7–10
51%
42%
–
0
7%
2008, September 5–7
43%
51%
2%
1%
3%
By gender and age
Pew Research Center polling shows little change in views from 2008 to 2012; modest differences based on gender or age.[336]
The original article's table also shows by party affiliation, religion, and education level.
2011–2012
2009–2010
2007–2008
Legal
Illegal
Don't Know
Legal
Illegal
Don't Know
Legal
Illegal
Don't Know
Total
53%
41%
6%
48%
44%
8%
54%
40%
6%
Men
51%
43%
6%
46%
46%
9%
52%
42%
6%
Women
55%
40%
5%
50%
43%
7%
55%
39%
5%
18–29
53%
44%
3%
50%
45%
5%
52%
45%
3%
30–49
54%
42%
4%
49%
43%
7%
58%
38%
5%
50–64
55%
38%
7%
49%
42%
9%
56%
38%
6%
65+
48%
43%
9%
39%
49%
12%
45%
44%
11%
By educational level
Support for the legalization of abortion is significantly higher among more educated adults than less educated, and has been consistently so for decades.[328] In 2019, 70% of college graduates support abortion being legal in all or most cases, as well as 60% of those with some college education, compared to 54% of those with a high school degree or less.[329]
2019
Educational attainment
Legal in all or most cases
Illegal in all or most cases
College grad or more
70%
30%
Some college
60%
39%
High school or less
54%
44%
By gender, party, and region
A January 2003 CBS News/The New York Times poll examined whether Americans thought abortion should be legal or not, and found variations in opinion which depended upon party affiliation and the region of the country.[337] The margin of error is +/– 4% for questions answered of the entire sample (overall figures) and may be higher for questions asked of subgroups (all other figures).[337]
A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in January 2003 asked about the legality of abortion by trimester, using the question, "Do you think abortion should generally be legal or generally illegal during each of the following stages of pregnancy?"[338] This same question was also asked by Gallup in March 2000 and July 1996.[339][340] Polls indicates general support of legal abortion during the first trimester, although support drops dramatically for abortion during the second and third trimester.
Since the 2011 poll, support for legal abortion during the first trimester has declined.
2018 Poll
2012 Poll
2011 Poll
2003 Poll
2000 Poll
1996 Poll
Legal
Illegal
Legal
Illegal
Legal
Illegal
Legal
Illegal
Legal
Illegal
Legal
Illegal
First trimester
60%
34%
61%
31%
62%
29%
66%
35%
66%
31%
64%
30%
Second trimester
28%
65%
27%
64%
24%
71%
25%
68%
24%
69%
26%
65%
Third trimester
13%
81%
14%
80%
10%
86%
10%
84%
8%
86%
13%
82%
By circumstance or reasons
According to Gallup's long-time polling on abortion, the majority of Americans are neither strictly "pro-life" or "pro-choice"; it depends upon the circumstances of the pregnancy. Gallup polling from 1996 to 2021 consistently reveals that when asked the question, "Do you think abortions should be legal under any circumstances, legal only under certain circumstances, or illegal in all circumstances?", Americans repeatedly answer "legal only under certain circumstances". According to the poll, in any given year 48–57% say legal only under certain circumstances, 21–34% say legal under any circumstances, and 13–19% illegal in all circumstances, with 1–7% having no opinion.[339]
Legal under any circumstances
Legal only under certain circumstances
Illegal in all circumstances
No opinion
2021 May 3–18
32%
48%
19%
2%
2020 May 1–13
29%
50%
20%
2%
2019 May 1–12
25%
53%
21%
2%
2018 May 1–10
29%
50%
18%
2%
2017 May 3–7
29%
50%
18%
3%
2016 May 4–8
29%
50%
19%
2%
2015 May 6–10
29%
51%
19%
1%
2014 May 8–11
28%
50%
21%
2%
2013 May 2–7
26%
52%
20%
2%
2012 Dec 27–30
28%
52%
18%
3%
2012 May 3–6
25%
52%
20%
3%
2011 Jul 15–17
26%
51%
20%
3%
2011 June 9–12
26%
52%
21%
2%
2011 May 5–8
27%
49%
22%
3%
2009 Jul 17–19
21%
57%
18%
4%
2009 May 7–10
22%
53%
23%
2%
2008 May 8–11
28%
54%
18%
2%
2007 May 10–13
26%
55%
17%
1%
2006 May 8–11
30%
53%
15%
2%
According to the aforementioned poll,[339] Americans differ drastically based upon situation of the pregnancy, suggesting they do not support unconditional abortions. Based on two separate polls taken May 19–21, 2003, of 505 and 509 respondents respectively, Americans stated their approval for abortion under these various circumstances:
Poll Criteria
Total
Poll A
Poll B
When the woman's life is endangered
78%
82%
75%
When the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest
65%
72%
59%
When the child would be born with a life-threatening illness
54%
60%
48%
When the child would be born mentally disabled
44%
50%
38%
When the woman does not want the child for any reason
32%
41%
24%
Another separate trio of polls taken by Gallup in 2003, 2000, and 1996,[339] revealed public support for abortion as follows for the given criteria:
Poll criteria
2003 Poll
2000 Poll
1996 Poll
When the woman's life is endangered
85%
84%
88%
When the woman's physical health is endangered
77%
81%
82%
When the pregnancy was caused by rape or incest
76%
78%
77%
When the woman's mental health is endangered
63%
64%
66%
When there is evidence that the baby may be physically impaired
56%
53%
53%
When there is evidence that the baby may be mentally impaired
55%
53%
54%
When the woman or family cannot afford to raise the child
35%
34%
32%
Gallup furthermore established public support for many issues supported by the anti-abortion community and opposed by the abortion rights community:[339]
Legislation
2011 Poll
2003 Poll
2000 Poll
1996 Poll
A law requiring doctors to inform patients about alternatives to abortion before performing the procedure
88%
86%
86%
A law requiring women seeking abortions to wait 24 hours before having the procedure done
69%
78%
74%
73%
Legislation
2005 Poll
2003 Poll
1996 Poll
1992 Poll
A law requiring women under 18 to get parental consent for any abortion
69%
73%
74%
70%
A law requiring that the husband of a married woman be notified if she decides to have an abortion
64%
72%
70%
73%
An October 2007 CBS News poll explored under what circumstances Americans believe abortion should be allowed, asking the question, "What is your personal feeling about abortion?" The results were as follows:[338]
Permitted in all cases
Permitted, but subject to greater restrictions than it is now
Only in cases such as rape, incest, or to save the woman's life
Only permitted to save the woman's life
Never
Unsure
26%
16%
34%
16%
4%
4%
Additional polls
Results of Gallup opinion poll in the U.S. since 1975, legal restriction of abortion
A June 2000 Los Angeles Times survey found that, although 57% of polltakers considered abortion to be murder, half of that 57% believed in allowing women access to abortion. The survey also found that, overall, 65% of respondents did not believe abortion should be legal after the first trimester, including 72% of women and 58% of men. Further, the survey found that 85% of Americans polled supported abortion in cases of risk to a woman's physical health, 54% if the woman's mental health was at risk, and 66% if a congenital abnormality was detected in the fetus.[342]
A July 2002 Public Agenda poll found that 44% of men and 42% of women thought that "abortion should be generally available to those who want it", 34% of men and 35% of women thought that "abortion should be available, but under stricter than limits it is now", and 21% of men and 22% of women thought that "abortion should not be permitted".[343]
A January 2003 ABC News/The Washington Post poll also examined attitudes towards abortion by gender. In answer to the question, "On the subject of abortion, do you think abortion should be legal in all cases, legal in most cases, illegal in most cases or illegal in all cases?", 25% of women responded that it should be legal in "all cases", 33% that it should be legal in "most cases", 23% that it should be illegal in "most cases", and 17% that it should be illegal in "all cases". 20% of men thought it should be legal in "all cases", 34% legal in "most cases", 27% illegal in "most cases", and 17% illegal in "all cases".[343]
Most Fox News viewers favor both parental notification as well as parental consent, when a minor seeks an abortion. A Fox News poll in 2005 found that 78% of people favor a notification requirement, and 72% favor a consent requirement.[344]
An April 2006 Harris poll on Roe v. Wade, asked, "In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that states' laws which made it illegal for a woman to have an abortion up to three months of pregnancy were unconstitutional, and that the decision on whether a woman should have an abortion up to three months of pregnancy should be left to the woman and her doctor to decide. In general, do you favor or oppose this part of the U.S. Supreme Court decision making abortions up to three months of pregnancy legal?", to which 49% of respondents indicated favor while 47% indicated opposition. The Harris organization has concluded from this poll that, "49 percent now support Roe vs. Wade".[345]
Two polls were released in May 2007 asking Americans "With respect to the abortion issue, would you consider yourself to be pro-choice or pro-life?" May 4–6, a CNN poll found 45% said "pro-choice" and 50% said pro-life.[346] Within the following week, a Gallup poll found 50% responding "pro-choice" and 44% pro-life.[347]
In 2011, a poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 43% of respondents identified themselves as both "pro-life" and "pro-choice".[348]
In 2003, the U.S. Congress outlawed intact dilation and extraction when it passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. A Rasmussen Reports poll four days after the Supreme Court's opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart found that 40% of respondents "knew the ruling allowed states to place some restrictions on specific abortion procedures." Of those who knew of the decision, 56% agreed with the decision and 32% were opposed.[349] An ABC poll from 2003 found that 62% of respondents thought "partial-birth abortion" should be illegal; a similar number of respondents wanted an exception "if it would prevent a serious threat to the woman's health".
Gallup has repeatedly queried the American public on this issue.[339]
Legislation
2011
2003
2000
2000
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
A law that would make it illegal to perform a specific abortion procedure conducted in the last six months, or second and/or third trimester of pregnancy, known by some opponents as a partial birth abortion, except in cases necessary to save the life of the mother
64%
70%
63%
66%
64%
61%
61%
55%
57%
Positions of political parties
After Roe, there was a national political realignment surrounding abortion. The abortion-rights movement in the United States initially emphasized the national policy benefits of abortion, such as smaller welfare expenses, slower population growth, and fewer illegitimate births. The abortion-rights movement drew support from the population control movement, feminists, and environmentalists. Anti-abortion advocates and civil-rights activists accused abortion-rights supporters of intending to control the population of racial minorities and the disabled, citing their ties to racial segregationists and eugenicist legal reformers. The abortion-rights movement subsequently distanced from the population control movement, and responded by taking up choice-based and rights-oriented rhetoric similar to what was used in the Roe decision.[350] Opponents of abortion experienced a political shift. The Catholic Church and the Democratic Party supported an expansive welfare state, wanted to reduce rates of abortion through prenatal insurance and federally funded day care, and opposed abortion at the time of Roe. Afterwards, the anti-abortion movement in the United States shifted more to Protestant faiths that saw abortion rights as part of a liberal-heavy agenda to fight against, and became part of the new Christian right. The Protestant influence helped make opposition to abortion part of the Republican Party's platform by the 1990s.[351][352] Republican-led states enacted laws to restrict abortion, including abortions earlier than Casey's general standard of 24 weeks.[130]
Into the 21st century, although members of both major U.S. political parties come down on either side of the issue, the Republican Party is often seen as being anti-abortion, since the official party platform opposes abortion and considers fetuses to have an inherent right to life. Republicans for Choice represents the minority of that party. In 2006, pollsters found that 9% of Republicans favor the availability of abortion in most circumstances.[353] Of Republican National Convention delegates in 2004, 13% believed that abortion should be generally available, and 38% believed that it should not be permitted. The same poll showed that 17% of all Republican voters believed that abortion should be generally available to those who want it, while 38% believed that it should not be permitted.[354] The Republican Party was supportive of abortion rights prior to 1976 Republican National Convention, at which they supported an anti-abortion constitutional amendment as a temporary political ploy to gain more support from Catholics; this stance brought many more social conservatives into the party resulting in a large and permanent shift toward support of the anti-abortion position.[355] The Democratic Party platform considers abortion to be a woman's right. Democrats for Life of America represents the minority of that party. In 2006, pollsters found that 74% of Democrats favor the availability of abortion in most circumstances.[353] Of Democratic National Convention delegates in 2004, 75% believed that abortion should be generally available, and 2% believed that abortion should not be permitted. The same poll showed that 49% of all Democratic voters believed that abortion should be generally available to those who want it, while 13% believed that it should not be permitted.[356]
The position of U.S. third political parties and other U.S. minor political parties is diverse. The Green Party supports legal abortion as a woman's right. While abortion is a contentious issue and the Maryland-based Libertarians for Life opposes the legality of abortion in most circumstances, the Libertarian Party platform (2012) states that "government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration."[357] The Constitution Party is opposed to abortion.
The issue of abortion has become deeply politicized. In 2002, 84% of state Democratic platforms supported the right to having an abortion while 88% of state Republican platforms opposed it. This divergence also led to Christian right organizations like Christian Voice, Christian Coalition of America, and Moral Majority having an increasingly strong role in the Republican Party. This opposition has been extended under the Foreign Assistance Act; in 1973, Jesse Helms introduced an amendment banning the use of aid money to promote abortion overseas, and in 1984 the Mexico City policy prohibited financial support to any overseas organization that performed or promoted abortions. The policy was revoked by President Bill Clinton and subsequently reinstated by President George W. Bush.[358] President Barack Obama overruled this policy by Executive Order on January 23, 2009,[359] and it was reinstated on January 23, 2017, by President Donald Trump.[358] On January 28, 2021, President Joe Biden signed a Presidential Memorandum that repealed the restoration of Mexico City policy and also called for the United States Department of Health and Human Services to "suspend, rescind or revoke" restrictions made to Title X.[360]
Effects of legalization and impact of abortion bans
The 2013 winter issue of Ms. was about abortion rights.
The risk of death due to legal abortion has fallen considerably since Roe v. Wade (1973) legalized it; this was due to increased physician skills, improved medical technology, and earlier termination of pregnancy.[361] From 1940 through 1970, deaths of pregnant women during abortion fell from nearly 1,500 to a little over 100.[361] According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of women who died in 1972 from illegal abortion was thirty-nine.[362] The Roe effect is a hypothesis suggesting that since supporters of abortion rights cause the erosion of their own political base by having fewer children, the practice of abortion will eventually lead to the restriction or illegalization of abortion.[363] The legalized abortion and crime effect is another controversial theory that posits legal abortion reduces crime because unwanted children are more likely to become criminals.[364][365][366]
Since Roe, there have been numerous attempts to reverse the decision.[367][368] In the 2011 election season, Mississippi placed an amendment on the ballot that redefined how the state viewed abortion. The personhood amendment defined personhood as "every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof"; if passed, it would have been illegal to get an abortion in the state.[369] On July 11, 2012, a Mississippi federal judge ordered an extension of his temporary order to allow the state's only abortion clinic to stay open. The order was to stay in place until U.S. District Judge Daniel Porter Jordan III could review newly drafted rules on how the Mississippi Department of Health would administer a new abortion law. The law in question came into effect on July 1, 2012.[370]
Between 2008 and 2016, the Turnaway Study followed a group of 1,000 women, two of whom died after giving birth,[371] for five years after they sought an abortion,[372] and compared their health and socio-economic consequences of receiving an abortion or being denied one.[372][373] The study found that those who were provided with abortion performed better, and those who were denied one suffered negative consequences.[374][375]Scientific American described it as landmark.[371] A follow-up Turnaway Study was confirmed to determinate the health and economic impact of Roe being overturned,[374][376] which other scholars also analyzed.[51] According to a 2019 study, were Roe reversed and abortion bans implemented in states with trigger laws, including states considered highly likely to ban abortion, "increases in travel distance are estimated to prevent 93,546 to 143,561 women from accessing abortion care."[377]
For the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case,[378] which confirmed the May 2022 leaks obtained by Politico and overruled Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in June 2022,[379][380][381] among the over 130 amici curiae briefs, hundreds of scientists provided evidence, data, and studies, in particular the Turnaway Study, in favor of abortion rights and to rebuke arguments made to the Court that abortion "has no beneficial effect on women's lives and careers—and might even cause them harm".[382] The American Historical Association (AHA) and the Organization of American Historians (OAH) were among those who signed an amici curiae brief for Dobbs,[383] and were cited, among others,[384] by Reason,[385]Syracuse University News,[386] and The Washington Post.[76] AHA and OAH jointly issued a statement against the Supreme Court's decision, which was reported by Anchorage Daily News,[387]Inside Higher Ed,[388]Insight Into Diversity,[389] and the Strict Scrutiny podcast from Crooked Media,[390] saying they have "declined to take seriously the historical claims of our [amicus curiae] brief". Joined by at least 30 other academic and scholarly institutions, they condemned "the court's misinterpretation about the history of legalized abortion" and said it has "the potential to exacerbate historic injustices and deepen inequalities in our country".[391]
Travel to Mexico
Availability of abortion in Mexican states.
Illegal but providers are not prosecuted
Legal during first 15 weeks LMP (first 12 weeks of pregnancy)
Legal for economic reasons if mother already has 3 children
In the wake of state abortion bans and restrictions in the United States, Americans have started traveling to Mexico for abortions, and Mexico has expressed a willingness to help.[392][393]
At least partly due to a unanimous 2021 Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation decision that penalties for abortion violate women's rights, abortion-providers are not prosecuted even in states where abortion remains illegal under state law; there are also legal exemptions for rape and medical reasons, and a police report is not required for a rape exemption. Providers openly treat American travelers in several states where abortion remains technically illegal, such as Nuevo Leon, which neighbors Texas. Following the Supreme Court ruling, abortion is being gradually legalized at the state level, and as of 2022 is legal during the first trimester (before the 13th week after implantation) in eleven states and Mexico City.[394][395] In an additional two states, abortion is legal for economic reasons if a woman already has 3 children; this is during the first trimester for one (Michoacan) and with no set limit for the other (Yucatán).[396]
Unintended live birth
Although it is uncommon,[397][398][399] women sometimes give birth in spite of an attempted abortion.[400][401][402] Reporting of live birth after attempted abortion may not be consistent from state to state, but 38 were recorded in one study in upstate New York in the two-and-a-half years before Roe v. Wade.[403] Under the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002,[404][405] medical staff must report live birth if they observe any breathing, heartbeat, umbilical cord pulsation, or confirmed voluntary muscle movement, regardless of whether the born-alive is non-viable ex utero in the long term because of birth defects, and regardless of gestational age, including gestational ages which are too early for long-term viability ex utero.[406][407][408]
1 2 All states allow abortion to prevent the woman's imminent death, and some if the pregnancy is a less-immediate threat to their life. • Additional allowance for risk to the woman's physical health: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. • Allowance for risk to the woman's general health: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington. • Allowance for pregnancy due to rape or incest: Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Carolina, West Virginia, Utah, and Wyoming. • Allowance for lethal fetal abnormality: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, South Carolina, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Utah. Note that these allowances may have a time limit, which may be as early as cardiac-cell activity (approximately 6 weeks LMP); others may have no limit. Different allowances may have different limits in the same state.
↑ Cardiac-cell activity is generally detectable in the 6th week LMP. Allowance beyond this limit is made, at minimum, for an immediate threat to the woman's life. In general, states that permit limited elective abortion may allow abortion beyond that limit for some or all of the reasons listed above.
↑ Typically, fetal viability begins in the 23rd or 24th week LMP.
↑ The second trimester is variously defined as through 27th or 28th week LMP. In Massachusetts, the law allows elective abortion up to 24 weeks from implantation, which is approx. 27 weeks LMP.
↑ Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New York, Ohio, and Vermont contain explicit abortion provisions within their constitutions, while Alaska, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wyoming are interpreted to have such protections through court rulings.
↑ According to the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade (1973):
(a) For the stage prior to approximately the end of the first trimester, the abortion decision and its effectuation must be left to the medical judgment of the pregnant woman's attending physician. (b) For the stage subsequent to approximately the end of the first trimester, the State, in promoting its interest in the health of the mother, may, if it chooses, regulate the abortion procedure in ways that are reasonably related to maternal health. (c) For the stage subsequent to viability, the State in promoting its interest in the potentiality of human life may, if it chooses, regulate, and even proscribe, abortion except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother.[32]
The 5th edition of the Black's Law Dictionary (1979) defined abortion as "knowing destruction" or "intentional expulsion or removal".[33] Into the 21st century, its free, online version defines it as "artificial or spontaneous termination of a pregnancy before the embryo or foetus can survive on its own outside a woman's uterus."[34]
Related Research Articles
Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protected a right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many abortion laws, and it sparked an ongoing abortion debate in the United States about whether, or to what extent, abortion should be legal, who should decide the legality of abortion, and what the role of moral and religious views in the political sphere should be. The decision also shaped debate concerning which methods the Supreme Court should use in constitutional adjudication.
The legality of abortion in the United States and the various restrictions imposed on the procedure vary significantly, depending on the laws of each state or other jurisdiction, although there is no uniform federal law. Some states prohibit abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with few exceptions; others permit it up to a certain point in a woman's pregnancy, while some allow abortion throughout a woman's pregnancy. In states where abortion is legal, several classes of restrictions on the procedure may exist, such as parental consent or notification laws, requirements that patients be shown an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion, mandatory waiting periods, and counseling requirements.
Abortion in Oklahoma is illegal unless the abortion is necessary to save the life of a pregnant individual.
Abortion in Connecticut is legal up to the point of fetal viability, or after that if necessary to preserve the life or health of the pregnant individual. A poll by the Pew Research Center found that 67 percent of adults in the state believed that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 72% of people from Connecticut said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Abortion in Delaware is legal up to the point of fetal viability. As of June 2024, Civiqs polling found that 72% of Delawareans believed that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 23% believed it should be illegal in all or most cases. There was a therapeutic exceptions in the state's legislative ban on abortions by 1900. Informed consent laws were on the books by 2007. In 2017, Senator Bryan Townsend, D-Newark introduced legislation to try to make clear that abortion would remain legal in the state in case 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned. The legislation was subsequently updated. Attempts have been made to introduce mandatory ultrasound laws, but they failed to get out of committee. State legislators tried to move ahead the week at which a woman could get a legal abortion in 2019.
Abortion in Idaho is illegal from fertilization. Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, abortion in Idaho was criminalized by the trigger law which states that a person who performs an abortion may face two to five years of imprisonment. The ban allows exceptions for maternal health, rape and incest within the first trimester. The law took effect on August 25, 2022. Minors need parental consent to travel out of state for an abortion.
Abortion in Kansas is legal. Kansas law allows for an abortion up to 20 weeks post-fertilization. After that point, only in cases of life or severely compromised physical health may an abortion be performed. In July 2024, the Kansas Supreme Court struck down two abortion restrictions.
Abortion in Maine is legal, although terminations after fetal viability can only be performed if a physician determines it to be medically necessary. According to a poll by the Pew Research Center, 64% of adults said that abortion should be legal, with 33% stating that it should be illegal in all or most cases.
Abortion in Nebraska is mostly illegal after the 12th week of pregnancy.
Abortion in Oregon is legal at all stages of pregnancy. The Center for Reproductive Rights classifies Oregon as highly protective of abortion rights.
Abortion is legal in Pennsylvania up to the 24th week of pregnancy. 51% of Pennsylvania adults said in a 2014 poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal and 44% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 63% of Pennsylvanians said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Abortion in South Dakota is illegal. Anyone who induces an abortion is guilty of a Class 6 felony. An exception is included to "preserve the life of the pregnant female," given appropriate and reasonable medical judgment.
Abortion in Utah is legally performed under a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the state's trigger law, which bans abortion. According to HB136, which is effective state law from June 28, 2022, abortions are banned following 18 weeks of gestation. Abortion was banned following the Supreme Court case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization on June 24, 2022. Utah State Legislation enacted SB 174 in May 2020, which, upon the overturn of Roe v. Wade, made inducing an abortion a second-degree felony. The law includes exceptions for pregnancies "caused by rape or incest," pregnancies that put the mother's life at risk, or "if two doctors say the fetus has a lethal defect." Rape and incest exceptions will only be viable if the crimes were previously reported to law enforcement officials.
Abortion in Vermont is legal at all stages of pregnancy. A 2014 Pew Research Center poll showed 70% of adults in the state believed abortion should be legal in most or all cases, the second highest percentage in the country. The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 76% of Vermonters said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The state funds abortions deemed medically necessary for low-income women via Medicaid.
Abortion in the U.S. state of Virginia is legal up to the end of the second trimester of a pregnancy. Before the year 1900, abortion remained largely illegal in Virginia, reflecting a widespread trend in many U.S. states during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Abortion was viewed as a criminal act and subject to state laws that prohibited it. However, by 1950, Virginia introduced a legal therapeutic exception, allowing for abortion under specific circumstances, primarily when a woman's physical or mental health was at risk. Notably, the University of Virginia Hospital established a review board in 1950 responsible for evaluating and approving abortion requests, particularly those grounded in psychiatric reasons. This thorough approval process resulted in a significant decrease in the number of abortions performed at the hospital.
Abortion in Wisconsin has been legal since September 18, 2023, before which its legal status had been unclear since the overturn of Roe v Wade, and is performed in Madison, Milwaukee and Sheboygan through 22 weeks gestation. However, elective abortions in Wisconsin are under dispute after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court of the United States on June 24, 2022. Abortion opponents cite an 1849 law that they claim bans the procedure in all cases except when the life of the mother is in danger. However, lower level courts have argued that the law only applies to infanticide and not consensual abortions. The enforceability of the law is disputed and being considered by the state courts. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin announced that they would resume abortion services in Madison and Milwaukee on September 18, 2023. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin later announced that they would resume abortion services in Sheboygan on December 28, 2023.
Abortion in New Mexico is legal at all stages of pregnancy. The number of abortion clinics in New Mexico has declined over the years, with 26 in 1982, 20 in 1992 and 11 in 2014. There were 4,500 legal abortions in 2014. There were 7 facilities providing abortion in New Mexico in 2017, and 6 of those were clinics. In 2017, 91% of New Mexico counties had no clinics that provided abortions, and 48% of New Mexico women lived in those counties.
Abortion in Florida is generally illegal after six weeks from the woman's last menstrual period, This law came into effect in May 2024, being approved by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis following its passage in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate, with only Republican state legislators supporting. Additionally, pregnant women are generally required to make two visits to a medical facility 24 hours apart to be able to obtain an abortion, in a law approved by Republican Governor Rick Scott in 2015.
Abortion in Puerto Rico is technically prohibited on request, although it is de facto allowed without a clear limit. On June 22, 2022, the Senate passed a bill limiting abortion to 22 weeks, with exceptions for danger to the mother's life, fetal defects, and if the fetus would not be viable. The bill will need to be considered by the House.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, 597 U.S. 215 (2022), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision overruled both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), returning to the federal and state legislatures the power to regulate any aspect of abortion not protected by federal statutory law.
↑ "Religious Landscape Study". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. Archived from the original on May 25, 2022. Retrieved January 25, 2024.
1 2 Blakemore, Erin (May 22, 2022). "The complex early history of abortion in the United States". National Geographic. Archived from the original on May 17, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022. But that view of history is the subject of great dispute. Though interpretations differ, most scholars who have investigated the history of abortion argue that terminating a pregnancy wasn't always illegal—or even controversial. ... A pregnant woman might consult with a midwife, or head to her local drug store for an over-the-counter patent medicine or douching device. If she owned a book like the 1855 Hand-Book of Domestic Medicine, she could have opened it to the section on 'emmenagogues,' substances that provoked uterine bleeding. Though the entry did not mention pregnancy or abortion by name, it did reference 'promoting the monthly discharge from the uterus.'
1 2 Sanger-Katz, Margot; Cain Miller, Claire; Bui, Quoctrung (December 14, 2021). "Who Gets Abortions in America?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 2, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2022. Six in 10 women who have abortions are already mothers, and half of them have two or more children, according to 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "One of the main reasons people report wanting to have an abortion is so they can be a better parent to the kids they already have," Professor Upadhyay said.
1 2 Zerwick, Phoebe (June 24, 2022). "The Latest Abortion Statistics and Facts". Parenting. Archived from the original on September 2, 2022. Retrieved September 2, 2022. Did you know that a majority of people who have abortions are already parents? Of those who received an abortion, 60 percent had "one or more" previous children—according to 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
1 2 Peipert, Jeffrey F.; Madden, Tessa; Allsworth, Jenifer E.; Secura, Gina M. (December 2012). "Preventing Unintended Pregnancies by Providing No-Cost Contraception". Obstetrics & Gynecology. 120 (6): 1291–1297. doi:10.1097/AOG.0b013e318273eb56. PMC4000282. PMID23168752. Conclusion: We noted a clinically and statistically significant reduction in abortion rates, repeat abortions, and teenage birth rates. Unintended pregnancies may be reduced by providing no-cost contraception and promoting the most effective contraceptive methods.
1 2 Guyot, Katherine; Sawhill, Isabel V. (July 29, 2019). "Reducing access to contraception won't reduce the abortion rate". Brookings Institution. Retrieved January 22, 2021. While the new rules were motivated by opposition to abortion, the state experiences we highlight in our paper show that increasing access to highly effective methods of contraception (and thus preventing unintended pregnancies) is a more effective way to reduce abortion rates. Barriers to contraceptive access will impede further progress in reducing unintended pregnancy rates, will raise government costs for Medicaid and other social programs, and will lead to more women seeking an abortion.
↑ Caron, Wilfred R. (Spring 1982). "The Human Life Federalism Amendment – An Assessment". The Catholic Lawyer. 27 (2): 87–111. PMID11655614. Retrieved May 12, 2022. (5th ed. 1979) ('abortion' is defined simply as 'the knowing destruction of the life of an unborn child or the intentional expulsion or removal of an unborn child from the womb other than for the principal purpose of producing a live birth or removing a dead fetus').
1 2 Ganong, Lawrence H.; Coleman, Marilyn, eds. (2014). The Social History of the American Family: An Encyclopedia. Sage Publications. ISBN978-1-4522-8615-0. Terminations of pregnancy were commonly practiced...many of the earliest court cases involved women who became pregnant before marriage and wished to avoid the shame associated with an illegitimate pregnancy.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Hardin, Garrett (December 1978). "Abortion in America. The Origins and Evolution of National Policy, 1800–1900. James C. Mohr". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 53 (4): 499. doi:10.1086/410954. The long silence had led us to assume that opposition to abortion had existed from time immemorial. Not so: most of the opposition to, and all of the laws against, abortion arose in the 19th century. Historian Mohr amply documents the earlier acceptance of abortion. ... In the 19th century even many of the feminists expressed horror at abortion, urging abstinence instead. Not so in the 20th century. In the 19th century the medical profession was fairly united against abortion; Mohr argues that this arose from the commercial competition between the 'regulars' (men with M.D.'s) and the irregulars (women without M.D.'s). ... A key role in generating prohibition laws was played by the press, ... . By 1900 the abortion-prohibition laws were immune to questioning, as they remained until the 1960's when feminists and a new breed of physicians combined to arouse the public to the injustice of the law.
↑ Keown, John (1988). Abortion, Doctors and the Law: Some Aspects of the Legal Regulation of Abortion in England from 1803 to 1982. Cambridge University press. p.3.
↑ Stauch, Marc; Wheat, Kay (2018). Text, Cases and Materials on Medical Law and Ethics. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
↑ Rust, Marion (2012). Prodigal Daughters: Susanna Rowson's Early American Women. United States: University of North Carolina Press. p.53. Unsanctioned pregnancy thus threatened the optimism of a newly developing cultural ethos that emphasized man's aptitude for self-direction. Prodigal daughters were correspondingly difficult to reconcile with the ideology of self-determination that was reinforced by welcoming home a prodigal son. Hence the cruel end they inevitably met in the genre dedicated to their story, the early American seduction novel, wherein they purchased their reclamation with their lives. This point is reinforced by a case in which Franklin, ever the pragmatist, did support single motherhood as a means to augmenting the population in the "Speech of Miss Polly Baker" (1747). Here, he cites abortion and infanticide among the extreme measures to which sexually active single women are forced by the inequitable sanctions imposed on them as opposed to their male sexual partners.
1 2 Miller, Wilbur R., ed. (2012). The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia. Sage Reference. p.2. States passed the first wave of abortion laws in the 1820s and 1830s. Connecticut was the first state to enact a law in 1821, followed by Missouri, Illinois, and New York. By 1840, 10 more states had passed statutes. These laws did not intend to ban abortion but to make it safer through regulation. Legislators were concerned that women sometimes faced death or serious injuries from poison potions or dangerous instruments. Legislation generally made abortion illegal only after quickening and punished the abortionist, not the woman seeking the abortion.
↑ Acevedo, Zachary P. V. (Summer 1979). "Abortion in early America". Women Health. 4 (2): 159–167. doi:10.1300/J013v04n02_05. PMID10297561. This piece describes abortion practices in use from the 1600s to the 19th century among the inhabitants of North America. The abortive techniques of women from different ethnic and racial groups as found in historical literature are revealed. Thus, the point is made that abortion is not simply a 'now issue' that effects select women. Instead, it is demonstrated that it is a widespread practice as solidly rooted in our past as it is in the present.
↑ Samuels, Alex; Potts, Monica (July 25, 2022). "How The Fight To Ban Abortion Is Rooted In The 'Great Replacement' Theory". FiveThirtyEight. Archived from the original on July 25, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022. Throughout colonial America and into the 19th century, abortions were fairly common with the help of a midwife or other women and could be obtained until the point that you could feel movement inside, according to Lauren MacIvor Thompson, a historian of early-20th-century women's rights and public health. Most abortions were induced through herbal or medicinal remedies and, like other medical interventions of the time, weren't always effective or safe.
↑ Samuels, Alex; Potts, Monica (July 25, 2022). "How The Fight To Ban Abortion Is Rooted In The 'Great Replacement' Theory". FiveThirtyEight. Archived from the original on July 25, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022. Declining white birth rates, along with the rising eugenics movement — a now-discredited pseudoscience focused on the genetic fitness of white Americans — were connected to the practice of abortion, and this helped bolster flawed, racist arguments for a total ban of the procedure. 'The physicians trying to pass these anti-abortion laws were concerned about how abortion was a 'danger' to our society and the ways we want our country to be,' said Shannon Withycombe, a professor of history at the University of New Mexico who studies 19th-century women's health. Their tactics worked. By the 1900s, abortion was illegal in every U.S. state.
↑ Samuels, Alex; Potts, Monica (July 25, 2022). "How The Fight To Ban Abortion Is Rooted In The 'Great Replacement' Theory". FiveThirtyEight. Archived from the original on July 25, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022. It took time for the anti-abortion movement to attract supporters, and unlike today, religious groups were not originally an active part of it. Still, momentum built as a small but influential number of physicians began arguing that licensed male doctors — as opposed to female midwives — should care for women throughout the reproductive cycle. In the late 1850s, one of the leaders of the nascent anti-abortion movement, a surgeon named Horatio Robinson Storer, began arguing that he didn't want the medical profession to be associated with abortion. He was able to push the relatively new American Medical Association to support his cause, and soon they were working to delegitimize midwives and enforce abortion bans. In an 1865 essay issued by order of the AMA, Storer went so far as to say of white women that 'upon their loins depends the future destiny of the nation.'
↑ Abdeltath, Rund; Arablouei, Ramtin; Caine, Julie; Kaplan-Levenson, Laine; Wu, Lawrence; Yvellez, Victor; Miner, Casey; Sangweni, Yolanda; Steinberg, Anya; George, Deborah. "Before Roe: The Physicians' Crusade". Throughline. NPR. Archived from the original on July 26, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
↑ Sanger, Margaret (November 18, 1921). "The Morality of Birth Control". Archived from the original on June 25, 2022. Retrieved July 27, 2022– via American Rhetoric.
↑ Hunter, James Davison (March 28, 1994). Before the Shooting Begins. Simon and Schuster. ISBN978-1-4391-0629-7. A third illustration of how speech acts distort public communication is found in the use of 'narratives' or stories. One of the celebrated stories invoked by pro-choice activists is that of seventeen year old Becky Bell...'She died' as her father put it, 'because of a parental consent law that we didn't even know existed'.
↑ Erickson, Rosemary J.; Simon, Rita James (1998). The Use of Social Science Data in Supreme Court Decisions. University of Illinois Press. pp.51–55. ISBN978-0-252-06661-0. The year after Singleton v. Wulff in which the Court did not address directly the issue of funding for abortions, the Court decided three funding cases – Beal v. Doe, Maher v. Roe and Poelker v. Doe. Both Beal v. Doe and Maher v. Roe addressed the use of state Medicaid funds ... At issue in Beal was the state's willingness to fund childbirth under Medicaid for indigent women, but not abortion. The Court dealt with Beal on statutory grounds only...
↑ American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Terminology Bulletin. Terms Used in Reference to the Fetus. No. 1. Philadelphia: Davis, September 1965.
↑ Cassidy, Keith (1995). "The Right to Life Movement". In Donald T. Critchlow (ed.). The Politics of Abortion and Birth Control in Historical Perspective. Issues in Policy History. Penn State Press. p.140. ISBN978-0271015705.
1 2 Roe v. Wade, 410U.S.113, 154(1973) "We, therefore, conclude that the right of personal privacy includes the abortion decision, but that this right is not unqualified, and must be considered against important state interests in regulation."
1 2 Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1972). Findlaw.com. Retrieved April 14, 2011.
↑ Roe v. Wade,410U.S.113, 164(1973) ("If the State is interested in protecting fetal life after viability, it may go so far as to proscribe abortion during [the third trimester], except when it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.")
1 2 Planned Parenthood v. Casey,505U.S.833, 878(1992) ("(a) To protect the central right recognized by Roe v. Wade while at the same time accommodating the State's profound interest in potential life, we will employ the undue burden analysis as explained in this opinion. An undue burden exists, and therefore, a provision of law is invalid, if its purpose or effect is to place a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.")
↑ Bradley, Gerard V. (2013). Keown, John; George, Robert P. (eds.). Reason, Morality, and Law: The Philosophy of John Finnis. Oxford University Press. p.255.
↑ "HB314". Archived from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
↑ "HB314". Archived from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022. Section 5. No woman upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed shall be criminally or civilly liable.
↑ "SB6". Archived from the original on August 12, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
↑ "SB6". Archived from the original on August 12, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022. 5-61-404. Prohibition. (c) This section does not: (1) Authorize the charging or conviction of a woman with any criminal offense in the death of her own unborn child.
↑ "Title 18 Crimes and Punishments Chapter 6 Abortion and Contraceptives"(PDF). Archived(PDF) from the original on August 11, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022. 18-606 (2) Every woman who knowingly submits to an abortion or solicits of another, for herself, the production of an abortion, or who purposely terminates her own pregnancy otherwise than by a live birth, shall be deemed guilty of a felony...
↑ "Senate Bill 1". Archived from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved October 8, 2022. The following sections of this chapter do not apply to a pregnant woman who terminates her own pregnancy or kills a fetus that she is carrying
↑ "KRS Chapter 311". Archived from the original on June 10, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022. 311.772 (5) Nothing in this section may be construed to subject the pregnant mother upon whom any abortion is performed or attempted to any criminal conviction and penalty
↑ "SB342". Archived from the original on May 12, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
↑ "SB342". Archived from the original on May 12, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022. 87.7. D. This Section does not apply to a pregnant female upon whom an abortion is committed or performed in violation of this Section and the pregnant female shall not be held responsible for the criminal consequences of any violation of this Section.
↑ "Mississippi Code Title 41. Public Health". Archived from the original on July 2, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022. 41-41-45. (4) Any person, except the pregnant woman, who purposefully, knowingly or recklessly performs or attempts to perform or induce an abortion in the State of Mississippi...
↑ "Title XII Public Health and Welfare Chapter 188". Archived from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022. 188.017. 2. A woman upon whom an abortion is performed or induced in violation of this subsection shall not be prosecuted for a conspiracy to violate the provisions of this subsection.
↑ "Century Code Chapter 12.1–31 Miscellaneous Offenses". Retrieved July 28, 2022. 12.1-31-12. 2. It is a class C felony for a person, other than the pregnant female upon whom the abortion was performed, to perform an abortion.
↑ "SB612". Archived from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
↑ "SB612". Archived from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022. B. 3. This section does not: a. authorize the charging or conviction of a woman with any criminal offense in the death of her own unborn child.
↑ "T. C. A. § 39-15-217"(PDF). Archived(PDF) from the original on July 28, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2022. No penalty may be assessed against the woman upon whom the abortion is performed or induced or attempted to be performed or induced.
↑ "HB 302". Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved October 9, 2022.
↑ "HB 302". Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved October 9, 2022. (c) This section may not be construed to subject a mother to a criminal penalty for any violation of this section.
↑ "Wisconsin Code 940.04". Archived from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved October 8, 2022. Any person, other than the mother, who intentionally destroys the life of an unborn child is guilty of a Class H felony.
↑ "The Hyde Amendment"(PDF). National Committee for a Human Life Amendment. April 2008. Archived from the original(PDF) on November 16, 2009. Retrieved January 23, 2009. text and history
↑ Francis Roberta W. "Frequently Asked Questions". Equal Rights Amendment. Alice Paul Institute. Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved September 13, 2009.
↑ Kowalczyk, E. A. (1993). "Access to abortion services: Abortions performed by mid-level practitioners". Trends in Health Care, Law & Ethics. 8 (3): 37–45. PMID8118134.
↑ Jones, Laurie (2003). "Abortion Surveillance – United States, 2000". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Surveillance Summaries. 52 (12). Washington, D.C.: Center for Disease Control: 1–32. PMID14647014. Archived from the original on May 22, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
↑ Elam-Evans, Laurie D. (2003). "Abortion Surveillance – United States, 2000". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Surveillance Summaries. 52 (12). Washington, D.C.: Center for Disease Control: 1–32. PMID14647014. Archived from the original on May 22, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
↑ Pazol, Karen; Creanga, Andreea A.; Zane, Suzanne B.; Burley, Kim D.; Jamieson, Denise J; Division of Reproductive Health (November 23, 2012). "Abortion surveillance – United States, 2009"(PDF). MMWR Surveillance Summaries. 61 (8): 1–44. PMID23169413. Archived(PDF) from the original on October 20, 2017. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
1 2 Leppert, Jeff Diamant, Besheer Mohamed and Rebecca (March 25, 2024). "What the data says about abortion in the U.S."Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on May 18, 2024. Retrieved May 18, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) "Looking at abortion rates among those ages 15 to 44, there were 28.6 abortions per 1,000 non-Hispanic Black women in 2021; 12.3 abortions per 1,000 Hispanic women; 6.4 abortions per 1,000 non-Hispanic White women; and 9.2 abortions per 1,000 women of other races, the CDC reported from those same 31 states, D.C. and New York City."
↑ Torres, Aida; Forrest, Jacqueline Darroch (July–August 1988). "Why Do Women Have Abortions?". Family Planning Perspectives. 20 (4): 169–176. doi:10.2307/2135792. JSTOR2135792. PMID3243347. S2CID25224865. Some 42 facilities were originally invited to participate in the study; these include six at which a relatively large number of late abortions (those at 16 or more weeks' gestation) were performed.
1 2 Raymond, E. G.; Grimes, D. A. (2012). "The Comparative Safety of Legal Induced Abortion and Childbirth in the United States". Obstetrics & Gynecology. 119 (2, Part 1): 215–219. doi:10.1097/AOG.0b013e31823fe923. PMID22270271. S2CID25534071. ...The pregnancy-associated mortality rate among women who delivered live neonates was 8.8 deaths per 100,000 live births. The mortality rate related to induced abortion was 0.6 deaths per 100,000 abortions...The risk of death associated with childbirth is approximately 14 times higher than that with abortion.
↑ Trupin, Suzanne (May 27, 2010). "Elective Abortion". eMedicine. Archived from the original on December 14, 2004. Retrieved June 1, 2010. At every gestational age, elective abortion is safer for the mother than carrying a pregnancy to term.
1 2 Saad, Lydia (April 28, 2010). "Education Trumps Gender in Predicting Support for Abortion – College-educated adults – and especially college-educated women – most supportive". Gallop. Archived from the original on September 16, 2017. Retrieved January 5, 2020. Educational achievement is much more important than gender in determining support for broadly legal abortion, with college-educated adults – and especially college-educated women – the most supportive. This has been the case since the 1970s. Gallup's long-term abortion question – instituted two years after the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling gave sweeping constitutional protection to abortion – asks Americans to say whether they believe abortion should be 'legal under any circumstances,' 'legal only under certain circumstances,' or 'illegal in all circumstances.'
1 2 "Public Opinion on Abortion – Views on abortion, 1995–2019". Pew Research Center. August 29, 2019. Archived from the original on September 19, 2019. Retrieved January 5, 2020. Seven-in-ten college graduates (70%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do 60% of those with some college education. A slim majority of those with a high school degree or less education share this opinion: 54% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 44% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.
↑ Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. April 25–26, 2005: "Do you think a female under age 18 should be required by state law to notify at least one parent or guardian before having an abortion?" 78% yes, 17% no. "Do you think a female under age 18 should be required by state law to get permission or consent from at least one parent or guardian before having an abortion?" 72% yes, 22% no.
↑ Williams, Daniel (January 1, 2011). "The GOP's Abortion Strategy: Why Pro-Choice Republicans Became Pro-Life in the 1970s". Journal of Policy History. 23 (4). Cambridge University Press: 513–539. doi:10.1017/S0898030611000285. S2CID154353515. Retrieved March 3, 2021. When the Republican national convention convened in Kansas City in 1976, the party's pro-choice majority did not expect a significant challenge to their views on abortion. Public opinion polls showed that Republican voters were, on average, more pro-choice than their Democratic counterparts, a view that the convention delegates shared; fewer than 40 percent of the delegates considered themselves pro-life. The chair of the Republican National Committee, Mary Louise Smith, supported abortion rights, as did First Lady Betty Ford, who declared Roe v. Wade a 'great, great decision.' Likewise, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, who had taken a leading role in the fight for abortion rights in New York in the late 1960s and early 1970s, was solidly pro-choice. Even some of the party's conservatives, such as Senator Barry Goldwater, supported abortion rights. But in spite of the Republican Party's pro-choice leadership, the GOP adopted a platform in 1976 that promised an antiabortion constitutional amendment. The party's leadership viewed the measure as a temporary political ploy that would increase the GOP's appeal among traditionally Democratic Catholics, but the platform statement instead became a rallying cry for social conservatives who used the plank to build a religiously based coalition in the GOP and drive out many of the pro-choice Republicans who had initially adopted the platform. By 2009, only 26 percent of Republicans were pro-choice.
1 2 Coble, Yank D. (1992). "Induced Termination of Pregnancy Before and After Roe v Wade: Trends in the Mortality and Morbidity of Women". JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. 268 (22): 3231. doi:10.1001/jama.1992.03490220075032.
↑ Strauss, Lilo T.; Herndon, Joy; Chang, Jeani; Parker, Wilda Y.; Bowens, Sonya V.; Zane, Suzanne B.; Berg, Cynthia J.; Berg, CJ (2004). "Abortion surveillance – United States, 2001". Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 53 (9): 1–32. PMID15562258.
↑ Di Tella, Rafael; Edwards, Sebastian; Schargrodsky, Ernesto (2010). The Economics of Crime: Lessons for and from Latin America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p.286. ISBN978-0-226-15376-6. OCLC671812020. While the data from some countries are consistent with the DL hypothesis (e.g. Canada, France, Italy), several countries' data show the opposite correlation (e.g. Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Poland). In other cases crime was falling before legalization and does not decline any more quickly (twenty years) after legalization (e.g. Japan, Norway).
↑ Roeder, Oliver K.; Eisen, Lauren-Brooke; Bowling, Julia; Stiglitz, Joseph E.; Chettiar, Inimai M. (2015). "What Caused the Crime Decline?". SSRN Electronic Journal. doi:10.2139/ssrn.2566965. ISSN1556-5068. S2CID155454092. Based on an analysis of the past findings, it is possible that some portion of the decline in 1990s could be attributed to the legalization of abortion. However, there is also robust research criticizing this theory.
↑ Krohn, Marvin D.; Hendrix, Nicole; Lizotte, Alan J; Hall, Gina Penly (2019). Handbook on Crime and Deviance (2nded.). Cham, Switzerland. ISBN978-3-030-20779-3. OCLC1117640387.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ "Science vs. myths about later abortion". Later Abortion Initiative. Ibis Reproductive Health. October 9, 2017. Retrieved May 7, 2022. The Turnaway Study compared over 800 individuals who received a wanted abortion to those who were denied a wanted abortion because their pregnancy exceeded the gestational age limit of the abortion clinic. In the short-term, those who were denied a wanted abortion were more likely to experience negative emotions than those who received a wanted abortion. At one week, 95% of people who obtained an abortion felt that having the abortion was the right decision, and at three years, over 99% felt that having the abortion had been the right decision for them. At five years, the researchers found no differences between individuals who received and those who were denied wanted abortions with respect to depression, anxiety, self-esteem, life satisfaction, post-traumatic stress disorder, or post-traumatic stress symptoms. Further, no increase in the use of alcohol or drugs was found following abortion. However, those who were denied abortions did experience other negative consequences related to mental health, including remaining in relationships marked by intimate partner violence. These data support the already existing body of evidence concluding that abortion does not harm mental health. In fact, for those obtaining a desired abortion, the emotion experienced by the majority was relief.
1 2 "The Turnaway Study". ANSIRH. University of California, San Francisco. February 3, 2021. Retrieved May 7, 2022.
↑ "Aborto legal y seguro"(PDF) (in Spanish). GIRE. September 2021. p.19. Archived(PDF) from the original on November 18, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
↑ "Aborto legal y seguro"(PDF) (in Spanish). Sistema de Indicadores Estadísticos de Género – Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres. 2022. pp.1–4. Archived(PDF) from the original on July 10, 2022. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
↑ Termination of Pregnancy for Fetal Abnormality(PDF) (Report). Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. May 2010. p.30. Retrieved October 26, 2015. Live birth following medical termination of pregnancy before 21+6 weeks of gestation is very uncommon. Nevertheless, women and their partners should be counselled about this unlikely possibility and staff should be trained to deal with this eventuality. Instances of recorded live birth and survival increase as gestation at birth extends from 22 weeks. In accordance with prior RCOG guidance, feticide should be routinely offered from 21+6 weeks of gestation. Where the fetal abnormality is not compatible with survival, termination of pregnancy without prior feticide may be preferred by some women. In such cases, delivery management should be discussed and planned with the parents and all health professionals involved and a written care plan agreed before termination takes place. Where the fetal abnormality is not lethal and termination of pregnancy is being undertaken after 22 weeks of gestation, failure to perform feticide could result in live birth and survival, an outcome that contradicts the intention of the abortion. In such situations, the child should receive the neonatal support and intensive care that is in the child's best interest and its condition managed within published guidance for neonatal practice.
↑ Jeffries, Liz (August 2, 1981). "Abortion"(PDF). The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived(PDF) from the original on December 23, 2015. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
↑ Stroh, G. (September 1, 1976). "Reported live births following induced abortion: two and one-half years' experience in Upstate New York". American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 126 (1): 83–90. doi:10.1016/0002-9378(76)90469-5. PMID961751.
Weingarten, Karen (2014). Abortion in the American Imagination: Before Life and Choice, 1880–1940. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. ISBN978-0-8135-6530-9.
Cohen, David S., Donley, Greer, and Rebouché, Rachel (2023). "Abortion Pills". Stanford Law Review 76 (forthcoming 2024), University of Pittsburgh Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2023-12, SSRN 4335735.
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![Status of elective abortion in the United States
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Illegal, limited exceptions
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v
t
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Legal, but no providers
Legal before cardiac-cell activity
Legal through 12th week LMP*
Legal through 15th week LMP* (1st trimester)
Legal through 18th week LMP*
Legal through 22nd week LMP* (5 months)
Legal before fetal viability
Legal through 24th week LMP* (5 1/2 months)
Legal through second trimester
Legal at any stage
*LMP is the time since the last menstrual period began.
This color-coded map illustrates the current legal status of elective-specific abortion procedures in each of the individual states, U.S. territories, and federal district. A colored border indicates a more stringent restriction or ban that is blocked by legal injunction. Gestational limits for elective abortion in the United States.svg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Gestational_limits_for_elective_abortion_in_the_United_States.svg/370px-Gestational_limits_for_elective_abortion_in_the_United_States.svg.png)
